Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Douglas County

144 N.W. 1058, 95 Neb. 87, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 154
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 7, 1914
DocketNos. 17,287, 17,288
StatusPublished

This text of 144 N.W. 1058 (Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Douglas County) 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
Hydraulic Press Brick Co. v. Douglas County, 144 N.W. 1058, 95 Neb. 87, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 154 (Neb. 1914).

Opinion

Hamer, J.

The following cases were consolidated for hearing: Hydraulic Press Brick Company v. Douglas County, No. 17,287; Hydraulic Press Brick Company v. Sarpy County, No. 17,288. The facts in each case may be separately stated, but the facts in each case were before the court as alleged in each petition. Judge Travis-, of Sarpy county, and Judge Kennedy, of Douglas county,, sat together when the cases were argued. Judge Travis had jurisdiction in Sarpy county, and it is of the judgment rendered by him as judge of the district court in No. 17,-288 that the appellant in that case complains. It is the judgment of Judge Kennedy that is complained of in the Douglas County case. Sarpy county taxed certain property of the Hydraulic Press Brick Company which was permanently situated in that county, and it also taxed certain personal property of the same company which was permanently situated in Douglas county. The thing to be determined in the Sarpy County case is, what property was properly taxable in that county. If personal property properly taxed in Sarpy county, was wrongfully taxed in Douglas county, that is the separate wrong of Douglas county. The first thing to be determined is [89]*89whether Sarpy county could follow the personal property of the company into Douglas county, where it was to be found, and tax it.

The articles of incorporation of the company provide that the principal place of business of the corporation is in Douglas county. Separate petitions by the brick company were filed in the district court for each county. The judges sat together and agreed on the law, and the judgment rendered in each case was along the line of their agreement as to what the law was applicable to that case. In the Sarpy County case it was alleged that the brick company was a corporation under the laws of Missouri transacting business in Nebraska, and that it had complied with the laws of Nebraska concerning the transaction of business within that state by a foreign corporation; that it was engaged in the manufacture and sale of brick; that it owned an extensive manufacturing plant and clay-beds in the county of Sarpy, and also clay-beds in other counties in the state; that in connection with its manufacturing plant in the county of Sarpy it possessed machinery, tools and other personal property belonging to the equipment of a brick manufacturing plant'; that in connection with its clay-beds in the county of Sarpy it possessed tools and other equipment necessary in the removal of clay; that it possessed similar tools in other counties in Nebraska other than Sarpy; that its principal office for the transaction of its business was in the city of Omaha, county of Douglas, and state of Nebraska, where it kept its books of account; that it deposited its funds in a bank or banks in the city of Omaha; that it maintained no other general office, or any office whatever, for the transaction of its commercial business in the state other than its Omaha office; that it had complied with the laws of the state of Nebraska with reference to the appointment of an agent within the state upon whom for it process might be served and notice given, and that within the state it' had named an agent and given his residence as in the city of Omaha, and that it had named its principal place of business as in said city; that it maintained [90]*90no manufacturing plant in the county of Douglas, and owned no real property in said county; that it had paid its taxes to the county treasurers of the various counties in which its real property was situated, and that it had paid its yearly taxes upon its personal property to the treasurers where that property was situated; that it had returned to the assessor of the county of Sarpy its personal property situated in said county pertaining to its brick manufacturing plant; that it had also made a return to the assessor of the county of Douglas of its personal property in that county, consisting of a safe, a typewriting machine, office furniture, book accounts, money on hand or on deposit with banks, all of the value of $15,175; that such returns had been made for the year 1910; that the county of Douglas for the year 1910 taxed the personal property actually situated in Douglas county, and that the brick company paid the taxes so levied; that, without the knowledge or consent of the company, the taxing authorities of Sarpy county added to the return made by the company of its personal property in Sarpy county the personal property above enumerated which was situated in the county of Douglas, and levied a tax in Sarpy county upon the personal property enumerated and then situated in Douglas county, the total being $280.42; that prior to the first day of November, 1910, the brick company paid to the county treasurer - of said Sarpy county the total tax of $280.42, accompanying the same with a written protest, and taking from the county treasurer of said Sarpy county a receipt; that the protest runs to the county of Sarpy and to its county treasurer, and recites that it pays all demands of the county of Sarpy on account of personal taxes levied by that county for the year 1910, being the sum of $280.42, and which payment of taxes is against the will of the company and is paid under protest; that the company has complied with the laws of Nebraska pertaining to the doing of business in Nebraska by a foreign corporation, and that its principal place of business is in Omaha, Douglas county, Nebraska, and that-under its articles of incorporation it has [91]*91the power to maintain principal places of business in other states than Missouri, and that it has named Omaha as its principal place of business in Nebraska; that its Nebraska residence is Omaha, where it maintains its office in the Bee building, and where are kept all of its books of account and a safe and typewriting machine and office, furniture; that its ready money on hand is kept in a bank in Omaha; that upon demand of the county assessor of Douglas county it had made a return of its property in Omaha, Douglas county, for the year 1910 to the assessor of that county, filling out the schedule furnished by it by the assessor thereof, and returning all personal property held in Douglas county; that none of the property described as in Douglas county had ever been-located in Sarpy county; that such property was not liable to taxation in Sarpy county; that it had always paid all taxes levied against its property, whether real or personal, and that it was willing to pay all taxes that might be lawfully levied upon any of its personal property for the year 1910, situated in the county of Sarpy; that, while it made a return to the county assessor of Sarpy county of its personal property in Sarpy county, that county without its knowledge or consent had added to the return the personal property which the company owned in Douglas county, and that the county of Sarpy had taxed the personal property of the company in Douglas county, as also the property in Sarpy county; that included in the total amount of taxes, $280.42, was the tax which Sarpy county had levied against the personal property of the company situated in Douglas county; that Douglas county had levied a tax for the year 1910 upon the personal property of the company situated in Douglas county, and amounting to $66.77, and that the company had paid the same, although the levy of the same was invalid; that, through the fact that both Douglas and Sarpy counties had assessed and levied taxes upon the personal property of the company in Douglas county, the company had been compelled to pay taxes twice upon the same property in the same year.

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Bluebook (online)
144 N.W. 1058, 95 Neb. 87, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hydraulic-press-brick-co-v-douglas-county-neb-1914.