Hacker v. Howe

100 N.W. 1127, 72 Neb. 385, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 218, 1904 WL 289
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 5, 1904
DocketNo. 13,944
StatusPublished
Cited by66 cases

This text of 100 N.W. 1127 (Hacker v. Howe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hacker v. Howe, 100 N.W. 1127, 72 Neb. 385, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 218, 1904 WL 289 (Neb. 1904).

Opinion

By the Court:

The court is unanimously of the opinion

that the judgment of the trial court is erroneous and should he reversed, which is accordingly done. An opinion will he hereafter filed.

Judgment reversed and action dismissed. Mandate to issue forthwith.

Reversed.

The following opinion was filed November 2,1904:

4.-. The assessment of property is not final until acted upon by the county and state boards of equalization, and not until the action of the latter is certified to the county clerks of the different counties and by them extended upon the tax rolls. 5.-. An assessment is an official listing of persons and property, with an estimate of the value of the property of each for purposes of taxation. 6. -: Collateral Attack. The state board, in the equalization of assessments as between different counties, acts in a quasi judicial capacity, and the action taken is not subject to collateral attack except upon grounds of fraud or other wrongful conduct equivalent thereto, or for the exercise of power not conferred upon it by law. 7.-: Impeachment. The action of the state board in the equalization of assessments as between the different counties in ordering a per centum of increase in the aggregate valuation of some of the counties cannot be impeached in the absence of < fraud, bad faith or usurpation of power, by evidence tending to C prove that the property in the county affected was assessed by the county authorities at its actual cash value. 8.-: Notice. No notice is required, other than that given by statute, of the time and place of meeting or of action taken by the state board in the equalization of the assessments of property of the different counties so as to conform to Jaw. 9. Constitutional Law. The section of the statute providing for the equalization of the assessments of property as between the different counties by the state board by a per centum of increase or decrease of the aggregate valuations so as to make the same conform to law is not invalid because no provisions are made for an appeal from such action to the courts of the state. 10.-. An owner is not deprived of his property without due process of law by means of taxation, if he has an opportunity to question its validity or the amount of such tax or assessment at some stage of the proceedings, either before that .amount is finally determined, or in subsequent proceedings for its collection. 11. Equalization: State Boaed. The state board cannot, under the guise’ of equalization, raise valuations merely for the purpose of making such increase, but when an increase results incidentally in the equalization of property, so that all property may bear its equitable proportion of the burdens of taxation, such resulting increase is within the legitimate exercise of the power to equalize. 12.-: -. The state board of equalization cannot deal with individual assessments, nor take into consideration inequalities as between individual taxpayers, but it deals only with the values of the taxable property of a county as a whole. 13. -: County Boabd. Individual discrepancies and inequalities, the law contemplates, shall be corrected and equalized by county boards of equalization, who are specially empowered to hear complaints and grievances as between individual taxpayers, and to adjust and remedy the same as may be just. A taxpayer failing to avail himself of the opportunity thus presented has no legal ground of complaint because of the action of the state board of equalization in lowering or raising the valuation of all property in a county so as to conform with all other property throughout the state. 14. -: Constitutional Law. The fact that an individual taxpayer cf a county has returned for assessment and taxation money on hand and in bank at its full face value will not prevent the state board from equalizing the assessment by raising the aggregate value of all property in such county th‘e per centum found necessary to bring it to a uniform standard with all property of the different counties of the state, nor do provisions of this character violate the fundamental law requiring all persons and corporations to pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her or its property. 15.-: -. Such an assessment of money at its legal value, and an order of increase in the value of all property of the county, including such money, can, at most, affect only the one item of property that is assessed in the first instance at its face value. 16. Equity. Whether a court of equity would grant relief from such overvaluation not determined. 1/. Injunction. In no event will an injunction lie until taxes legally due on such assessment are paid or tendered.

Holcomb, C. J.

The state board of equalization and assessment, acting under the provisions and by the authority of section 130, article T, chapter 77, Compiled Statutes, 1903 (Annotated Statutes, 10529), being a part of the general revenue act, increased the aggregate assessment of several of the counties of the state, including’ that of the county of Nemaha, which was raised 5 per cent, above the amount as [388]*388assessed and equalized by the county authorities. The action thus taken being certified to the county clerk of said county, it became his duty under said section to add to the assessment of each piece or parcel of property assessed in said county an amount equal to the per cent, of increase so directed as aforesaid. The plaintiff in this action brought i.n the district court for said county an injunction suit for the purpose of restraining the county clerk and his deputy from extending on the tax rolls of said county the percentage of increase to the assessed valuation as certified by the state board of equalization. After joinder of issues and a hearing to the court, the injunction was made perpetual, and the defendants prosecute error proceedings in this court.

The substance of the allegations of the plaintiff’s petition on which is. grounded his right to the relief prayed for is to the effect that: (a) The state board of equalization, in ordering the increase complained of, acted arbitrarily, capriciously and fraudulently; (b) that all property, both real and personal, in Nemaha county, had been valued at its true, full and actual cash value, and assessed at one-fifth thereof as provided by law, by the local authorities, and that the proposed per centum of increase would operate to raise the value of all property above its actual cash value, discriminate against the taxpayers of Nemaha county and- violate the provisions of the fundamental law which require that all property shall be assessed so that each person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, her or its property; (c) that no notice of any kind was given to the taxpayers of Nemaha county of the proposed increase, and that no way is provided by which the action of the board can be reviewed in a court of last resort; (d)

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 N.W. 1127, 72 Neb. 385, 1904 Neb. LEXIS 218, 1904 WL 289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hacker-v-howe-neb-1904.