Crawford v. Koch

135 N.W. 339, 169 Mich. 372, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 744
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1912
DocketDocket No. 166
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 135 N.W. 339 (Crawford v. Koch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crawford v. Koch, 135 N.W. 339, 169 Mich. 372, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 744 (Mich. 1912).

Opinion

Stone, J.

This is an action of replevin, brought to recover from the defendant 42 pianos seized by him, as city treasurer, for the personal taxes assessed against P. J. Schwankovsky for the years 1907 and 1908, and against the P. J. Schwankovsky Company, Incorporated, on or about July 18, 1908, for the year 1909, on the stock of merchandise situated in the store, Nos. 238-240 Woodward avenue, in the city of Detroit. The conceded facts are substantially as follows:

On October 20, 1909, the plaintiff purchased the 42 pianos in question from the Cincinnati Discount Company for $5,250, and received a bill of sale of them. The pianos were removed on the same day by the Cincinnati Discount Company from a storage house in Detroit and delivered to the plaintiff, and by her placed in the store of I. S. Crawford & Co., No. 347 Woodward avenue, Detroit, and there displayed for sale. On November 29, 1909, [374]*374while the said 42 pianos were held by the plaintiff under said purchase, and in the possession of and exhibited for sale by her agent, I. S. Crawford & Co., at the place last above named, they were seized by the defendant, against plaintiff’s protest, for the purpose of satisfying unpaid personal taxes assessed against F. J. Schwankovsky in the years 1907 and 1908, and against the F. J. Schwankovsky Company in the year 1909. Defendant, at the time of the seizure, certified that he seized the pianos as the property of the F. J. Schwankovsky Company, for the purpose of satisfying personal taxes assessed as above stated.

While defendant was in control of the pianos so seized, plaintiff commenced this suit in replevin to recover their possession, having previously stipulated with the defendant that no objection should be made to the form of the action. The pianos were then taken by the sheriff of Wayne county, under the writ of replevin, and delivered to the plaintiff; she having furnished a bond, as required by law.

Defendant concedes that but 10 pianos, of the value of $1,250, are now involved in this controversy, and admits that he has no claim whatever to the other 32 pianos. This admission is made, because it appeared on the trial of this case in the circuit court that no one of the said 32 pianos was in the store of the said Schwankovsky on the 1st day of April in either of the years 1907, 1908, or 1909. The said 10 pianos were owned by plaintiff’s vendor, the Cincinnati Discount Company, and were in the said store of the said F. J. Schwankovsky, on consignment from the Cincinnati Discount Company, a nonresident of the State of Michigan, for sale. Schwankovsky’s store contained, during the years 1908 and 1909, an average of 500 pianos, which were there on display for sale, among which, on the 1st day of April, 1908, was one of the said 10 pianos, and on April 1, 1909, were the other 9 of the said 10 pianos.

On October 18, 1909, the Cincinnati Discount Company, [375]*375at the request of the F. J. Sehwankovsky Company, removed its said 42 pianos, among which were the 10 now claimed by the defendant, from said Schwankovsky’s store to a storage warehouse in the city of Detroit, from which place, two days later, it sold and delivered the pianos to the plaintiff, as above stated.

On April 1, 1908, the city of Detroit, through its board of assessors, assessed F. J. Schankovsky’s personal property at a valuation of $65,200. The tax roll of that year contains the following entry, and nothing more:

“City tax roll 1908. First Ward, location 238 Woodwardavenue, Detroit, valuation personal property, $65,200. Amount of tax, $1,000.25, assessed to F. J. Schwankovsky.”

On the back of the tax roll, the board of assessors certified that it contained a true statement of the aggregate valuation of the personal taxable estate of each and every person named in the roll.

The tax roll for the year 1909 is the same as in the year 1908, as respects the assessment against Sehwankovsky, except that it is against the F. J. Sehwankovsky Company, instead of F. J. Sehwankovsky as an individual, and the amount of the tax is $1,178.19. The same certificate appears at the end of the roll as in 1908. The name of the Cincinnati Discount Company does not appear in the roll of either year.

The board of assessors, in making the assessment for the year 1908 against F. J. Sehwankovsky, and the assessment for the year 1909 against the F. J. Schwankovsky Company, did not require Sehwankovsky or his company to file a tax statement of their personal property subject to taxation; but merely notified Sehwankovsky and Sehwankovsky Company that upon their failure to file a tax statement their personal assessment would be $65,200. No tax statement having been filed in either year, the board made no attempt or effort to compel the same, but merely fixed the assessment for each year at the sum as above stated.

[376]*376Defendant and appellant does not seek to hold plaintiff’s 10 pianos simply for the taxes assessed upon them, but seeks to hold them for the taxes assessed against Schwankovsky upon 500 other pianos which never belonged to the plaintiff, but were in stock. The unpaid personal taxes assessed against F. J. Schwankovsky and the F. J. Schwankovsky Company, in the years 1908 and 1909, exceed the aggregate value of the 10 pianos in question, which is $1,250.

The defendant, at the close of the trial, moved the court to direct a verdict in his favor for the sum of $1,250, the aggregate value of said pianos at $125 each, upon the ground that these identical pianos were in the store at the time the respective assessments were made, and that he had a lien thereon for the taxes assessed, so far as their value would go to discharge said taxes. This motion was denied by the court, and, on the contrary, the court directed a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, holding that she was entitled to the possession of the entire 42 pianos, and assessed her damages at the sum of six cents. Judgment was duly entered on said verdict in favor of the plaintiff.

The defendant has brought the case here for review, and there are only two assignments of error:

(1) That the court erred in directing a verdict in favor of the plaintiff on the motion of her attorneys; and (2) the court erred in denying the motion of the attorney for defendant to direct a verdict in favor of said defendant.

The two assignments of error may well be considered together.

The taxes for the year 1907 being entirely eliminated from the controversy, we may direct our attention to the taxes for the years 1908 and 1909. It is the claim of the defendant that the 10 pianos, above enumerated, are liable for the taxes assessed on said stock of merchandise in said store for the two years last named up to the value of the same, and that he is entitled to a verdict and judgment in the suit for the sum of $1,250.

[377]*377The Detroit city charter provides that:

“All city taxes upon personal property shall be and remain a lien thereon until paid, and no transfer of the personal property assessed shall operate to divest such lien.” Section 221, Charter of 1904.

It appears that the 10 pianos now in question were the property of the Cincinnati Discount Company, a nonresident of this State, when they were assessed; but they were in the store of F. J. Schwankovsky, or the F. J.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
135 N.W. 339, 169 Mich. 372, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 744, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crawford-v-koch-mich-1912.