In re St. Louis Loan & Investment Co.

62 N.E. 810, 194 Ill. 609, 1902 Ill. LEXIS 3259
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 62 N.E. 810 (In re St. Louis Loan & Investment Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re St. Louis Loan & Investment Co., 62 N.E. 810, 194 Ill. 609, 1902 Ill. LEXIS 3259 (Ill. 1902).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Ricks

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from the board of review of St. Clair county, prosecuted by appellant through the Auditor of Public Accounts, from the action of said board of review in assessing appellant with certain loans and mortgages for the tax year of 1901.

Appellant is a corporation organized under the laws of this State, under “An act to enable associations of persons to become a body corporate to raise funds to be loaned only among the members of such association,” commonly called a building and loan association. Appellant was cited before said board of review and required to make a schedule of its personal property for taxation, and further notified that unless such schedule was furnished by a day mentioned in said notice the said board of review would make an assessment of its personal property. Appellant appeared before said board of review at the time designated and. filed its written objection and protest against any assessment by the said board of review of the personal property of appellant, and set up the following facts: First, that it was a corporation organized under the laws above mentioned, and doing business at East St. Louis, Illinois; second, that by virtue of an act entitled “An act in relation to the assessment of the property of mutual building, loan and homestead Associations,” approved and in force April 30,1895, (Laws of 1895, p. 300,) and an act amendatory th'ereof and entitled “An act to amend section 29a of an act entitled ‘An act for the assessment of property and for the levy and collection of taxes,’ approved March 30, 1872, in force July 1, 1872, as added thereto by ‘An act in relation to the assessment of the property of mutual building, loan and homestead associations, ’ approved and in force April 30, 1895,” approved and in force April 18, 1901, (Laws of 1901, p. 265,) the said board of review had no power to assess the property and assets of said appellant association, or any part, parcel or kind thereof, in any manner than that]aid down and defined in the acts above quoted. Upon these objections a hearing was had, and the board of review finding notes and mortgages of appellant to the amount of $40,070, placed the same upon the assessment roll and assessed twenty per cent of the amount thereof ($8014) upon which to extend the taxes. From this action of the board of review appellant prayed its appeal to the Auditor of Public Accounts, and by him the same was certified to this court.

The act of 1895 above referred to purports to be an amendment to the Revenue law, and contains four sections, which are designated in the act as sections 29 a, 295, 29c and 29d of said Revenue act. (Hurd’s Stat. 1899, p. 1398.) The provisions are as follows:

“Sec. 29a. The stockholders of every mutual building, loan and homestead association for the purpose of building and improving homesteads and loaning money to the members thereof only, whether such association is organized under the laws of this State or of any other State or territory of the United States, shall list for taxation with the local assessor where such stockholders reside, the number of shares of stock of such association owned by them respectively, and the value thereof on the first day of May in each year, and the same shall be assessed against such stockholders, and the taxes thereon collected in the same manner as on other personal property.
“Sec. 295. The shares of stock of all stockholders residing without this State of such associations shall be assessed by the local assessor where such associations are located, and, for the purpose of collecting the taxes thereon, a lien is hereby created upon such stock.
“Sec. 29c. In determining the value of such stock for the purpose of taxation, the value of the real estate owned by such associations shall be first deducted from their assets and such real estate shall be assessed in the manner now provided by law.
“Sec. 29d. The shares of stock and property of every such mutual building, loan and homestead association shall be assessed as herein provided and not otherwise.”

The act of 1901 above cited is simply an amendment of section 29a of the act of 1895, supra, and only amends it in two respects: First, by changing the word “May” in that section to “April” as the time for fixing the value of property to be assessed, to correspond with the general Revenue law of the State, and by adding to said section the following: “Provided, that no stock of such association while loaned upon by, and pledged as security to the association issuing it, to an amount equal to the par value of such stock, shall be subject to assessment.”

Appellant contends that the above law defines the manner in which its property shall be listed for taxation, and by its clear and express terms the property assessed by the board of review in this case is exempt. Appellant further says: “The legislative power in reference to taxation has two phases: First, the subject matter of taxation; second, the manner of listing property for taxation. As to the first, the legislative power is hedged about by a constitutional provision prohibiting exemption from taxation of any property except that therein specified. As to the second phase, the legislature is limited only by the rule of equality of the burden of taxation. The legislature is left to its own devices as to the manner of assessing property for taxation, with that exception.” Appellant insists that it was within the constitutional power to pass the statutes above quoted; that the act is broad and comprehensive, and that it provides fully for the assessment of all of the property of such association.

On behalf of the People the Attorney General urges, first, that the subject matter of the act is not within the title, and for that reason is void; second, that the act of 1895 is an attempt to exempt the property of such associations, other than real estate, from taxation, and as the property in controversy does not fall within any of the classes of property authorized to be exempted by section 3 of article 9 of the constitution, it is void; third, that the act of 1895 is void for the.further reason that it attempts to enact a method of taxation for building' and loan associations which does not require them to pay a tax in proportion to the value of their property, as required by section 1 of article 9 of the constitution.

In the view we entertain of this statute this case must be controlled by the provisions of the act of 1895, supra, for two reasons: First, because we regard so much of the amendment to section 29a as is added by way of proviso invalid, because it is a clear attempt to exempt from taxation all that portion of the capital stock or shares of stock of such corporations upon which loans have been procured. By the amendment the original section 29a is re-enacted verbatim, the only change in it being the replacing of the month of May with that of April, which, in legal effect, had already taken place by the general law in reference to the time of assessment, passed in 1898. The proviso is clearly within the inhibition and controlled by the rule laid down in People’s Loan and Homestead Ass. v. Keith, 153 Ill. 609. There is no repealing clause in the act of 1901, and we think the legal effect must be given to the original section.

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Bluebook (online)
62 N.E. 810, 194 Ill. 609, 1902 Ill. LEXIS 3259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-st-louis-loan-investment-co-ill-1902.