Fell v. West

73 N.E. 719, 35 Ind. App. 20, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 50
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 9, 1905
DocketNo. 5,438
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 73 N.E. 719 (Fell v. West) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fell v. West, 73 N.E. 719, 35 Ind. App. 20, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 50 (Ind. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Comstock, C. J.

The complaint is in two paragraphs. In the first it is alleged that the plaintiffs are the owners in-fee simple, and have been for the past ten years, of 860 acres of land (describing it) located in Indian Creek township, Lawrence county, Indiana; that in the year 1899 the assessor of said township returned said lands for taxation at a valuation, giving the tracts and the valuation affixed to each tract, making a total valuation of said lands as returned by the assessor of $5,900, including improvements; that the auditor of said county, in the. year 1899, illegally placed upon the duplicate of said county the valuation of $10,540; that said valuation in excess of said $5,900, as returned by the assessor, was wrongful and void, for" the folio-wing reasons: The auditor, county assessor, or some one without authority in that behalf, illegally, inequitably and irregularly changed upon the book of the assessor of said township the valuation of $5,900, as returned by said as[22]*22sessor upon said lands, by erasing the original assessment on each tract as returned by said assessor, and by interlineation upon said assessor’s book of an increased amount above said erasures, amounting to the aggregate, as above set forth, of $10,540; that said interlineations, erasures and changes were made without the consent of the plaintiffs, or either of them, without any authorization of any kind by them, and without any notice of any kind from any source to appear before any auditor, or any board of review or equalization; that neither of said plaintiffs at any time authorized any agent or attorney to appear before said auditor or board of review or equalization, and that neither of them, either by agent, attorney or in person, at any time appeared before said board of review or any auditor of said county, and that said auditor, without any order of any board of review, placed said lands upon said duplicate for the year 1899 at said unlawful and inequitable valuation, and that for each successive year since 1899, up to and including the year 1902, said valuation has been wrongfully, inequitably and irregularly placed upon the duplicates of said county; that plaintiffs have paid tire amount based upon said wrongful valuation every year since said valuation was so placed upon the duplicate, up to and including the first half of the 1902 taxes; that the treasurer of said county now has in his hands the duplicate of said county, with said wrongful and inequitable valuation of said lands; that he is claiming there is due from these plaintiffs the sum of $146.85, and is threatening to collect by process of law said amount, which said amount as above set forth is based upon said wrongful valuation; that the taxes set forth since 1899 were paid by these plaintiffs in ignorance of the true state of facts, and in the belief that they were honestly and justly due, without knowledge of the facts above set forth; that the amount actually due on said instalment, based upon the valuation returned by the assessor for 1899, to wit, $5,900, is $74.32; that the valuation of plaintiffs’ personal property [23]*23for the year 1902 is $1,100; that the taxes due on this amount are $13.86; that before the bringing of this suit these plaintiffs caused to be tendered to said treasurer the sum of $90 in gold coin of the United States, which plaintiffs say is the correct amount due under the proper valuation; that said West refused to accept said sum, and still refuses, and plaintiffs now bring said sum into court and deposit the same with the clerk of this court for the benefit of the treasurer of Lawrence county in payment of said amount for tax admitted to. be just, etc.' Wherefore, they ask that said treasurer be enjoined from collecting more than the amount tendered herein for the balance of said 1902 taxes against plaintiffs.

The amended second paragraph of complaint alleges that the plaintiffs are now, and for twenty years prior hereto were, joint owners, and in 1899 were and are now the sole owners of certain real estate (describing it), being the same real estate described in the first paragraph of complaint; that in the year 1899, at the time a pretended board of equalization met in the county of Lawrence, and long prior, there was situate upon a certain 160-acre tract of said land a stone-quarry known as the “Doyle quarry;” that the Doyle Quarry Company held from these plaintiffs a lease, under the terms of which it was entitled to remove from beneath the surface of said 160-acre tract held by it under said lease, to wit, about six acres, all oolitic limestone deposit it might see fit to quarry therefrom; that pending the existence of said lease, which was in force in 1899, and which lease is still in force, said Doyle Quarry Company was the absolute owner under said lease of all stone removed, or that it might remove, pending the existence of said lease, from said part of said 160-acre tract by it held under said lease; that said assessor in making said assessment made no assessment whatever valuing said lands exclusive of the Doyle mine or quarry, but valued all of said lands and assessed the same at the aforesaid valuation [24]*24against these plaintiffs, nor did he at any time assess any value upon the mine, quarry, leasehold and appurtenances separately from the land against these plaintiffs.; that after the return of said assessment book at a pretended meeting of the board of equalization of Lawrence county on June 12, 1899, without any step whatever having been taken to separate the value of the lands, as assessed as other lands are assessed, from the value of the quarry or leasehold, the said board of equalization made the following illegal and inequitable order, to wit: “July 12, 1899. Ordered assessment as returned against M. Fell’s heirs, Indian Creek township, be raised $4,640, bringing the same to assessment of four years ago” — and this was the only record made with reference to said lands by said board of review at said term; that said record fails to show any appearance of plaintiffs, or either of them, in person or by attorney, any service of notice on plaintiffs, or either of them, any default against plaintiffs, or either of them, and fails to give any excuse for not showing either and all of said things.

Plaintiffs aver that the order so made is void, for the reason that the board had no power in gross thus to increase and raise the assessment as returned by the assessor of said township; that, while in fact they are the heirs of Moses Fell, deceased, in the year 1899 the heirs of Moses Fell, in Indian Creek township, held and owned no lands whatever, but that the title to. the lands aforesaid was in Maria L. Fell and Antoinette Fell, these plaintiffs, share and share alike; that, pursuant to the wrongful and unlawful increase in the valuation of their lands, the auditor of Lawrence county carried the same into the duplicate of 1899, and has since carried the same continuously where it now is; that in so doing there has been since 1899, and is now, upon said duplicate a valuation of $10,540 upon said real estate, when there should not be a valuation beyond the assessment as returned by the assessor of Indian Creek, township in 1899, to wit, $5,900, Said paragraph also pleads the [25]*25tender of the sum of $90 as set ont in'the first paragraph of the complaint. With the exception of the allegations as to the stone-quarry upon said 160-acre tract, the two paragraphs do not materially differ.

A demurrer for want of facts to each of said paragraphs was overruled, and defendant answered by general denial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
73 N.E. 719, 35 Ind. App. 20, 1905 Ind. App. LEXIS 50, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fell-v-west-indctapp-1905.