People v. Owyhee Mining Co.

1 Idaho 409
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1871
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1 Idaho 409 (People v. Owyhee Mining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Owyhee Mining Co., 1 Idaho 409 (Idaho 1871).

Opinions

Noggle, O. J.,

delivered the opinion.

Whitson, J., concurred. Lewis, J., dissented.

This is an appeal from the district court for Owyhee county from the order of that court refusing a new trial. Judgment was rendered on the twenty-fifth day of November, 1869, against the defendants, for the sum of three thousand four hundred and thirty-seven dollars and ninety-one cents ($3,437 91) for taxes, and for eight hundred and sixty-four dollars and thirty-one cents costs of action. A motion was made for a new trial, which motion appears to have been filed January 30, 1870, and about that time overruled by the court. This ca.se is now before the court upon appeal from the order refusing to grant a new trial. Several questions have been urged in favor of the judgment for taxes in the case, and also against the same. We have decided that the order refusing a new trial must be reversed for error in assessment hereinafter set forth, and for the following reasons: We do not find that the land on which the quartz-mill and other erections are is taxed, but' the facts fatal to this case are that e‘a mill-site situated on the east side of Jordan creek, about half a mile below Silver City in Owyhee county, Idaho territory, and known as East Buby, together with a twenty-stamp quartz-mill and appurtenances, a blacksmith shop, barn, retort house, carpenter shop, laboratory, warehouse, boarding-house, office, and other improvements thereon, and known as the Owy-hee company’s mill property, valued altogether at ninety thousand dollars.”

In this case the mill-site, buildings, and erections thereon, [411]*411are all listed together under the head of real estate, and no words were used to limit the interest in the lands intended to be taxed to a claim, or possessing interest, but the term used was “ a mill-site” situated, etc., together with a twenty-stamp quartz-mill and appurtenances, blacksmith shop, barn, etc. It is unnecessary to claim that the quartz-mill, and other buildings are not sufficiently described; but the description of the land does not conform in any particular to the description required under the third subdivision of the eighteenth section of the revenue act of 1869. The manner of listing the real estate should at least comply with the requirements of the fourth subdivision of said section 18, viz., “the cash value of real estate and the improvements thereon.”

The land, mill, and other buildings are listed and valued in one estimate in gross. The mill-site is agreed by both parties to be a possessory interest in public lands upon which there is erected for the owners’ convenience the following personal property, viz.: A quartz-mill, blacksmith shop, barn, retort house, carpenter shop, laboratory, warehouse, office, boarding-house, and other improvements. It is proper to list and value the mill-site or land, and the immovable improvements thereon as real estate; but the quartz-mill, blacksmith shop, retort house, barn, carpenter shop, laboratory, warehouse, office, boarding-house, and other erections, etc., being movable property, must be listed, valued, and assessed under the last part of section 5 of said revenue act as personal property.

By section 4 o,f the revenue act taxable property is divided into two general classes: 1. Beal property which simply means real estate. 2. Personal property. The term real property includes lands, and immovable improvements thereon, and the term personal property shall include all property except real property. By section 5 of said act, real estate, or real property is declared to mean: 1. The ownership of any land. 2. Any possessory claim or interest in land, public or private, where the title, meaning the fee, is not in the possessory claimant, and the same revenue law provides that possessory claims shall be listed to the claim[412]*412ant under the head of real estate, while personal property in section 5, aforesaid, is defined to be all houses, buildings, fences, structures; erections, or other improvements built or erected on any lauds, whether such lands be private property, or the property of the territory,' or of the United States, etc. It is claimed by the plaintiffs, that these sections of the revenue act are inconsistent. That section 4 defines real estate to be lands and immovable property thereon, while section 5 makes buildings, fences, etc., on land (both private and public) personal property, because fences and buildings are claimed by the plaintiffs to be immovable property, a part of the realty. If these two sections can be harmoniously construed so that the validity of both shall be sustained, and so that both may stand in force, then the plaintiff’s position is not sound, and the admitted errors are fatal to the case.

Evidently, the ownership of land shall include all real estate, in its common law signification, where the fee belongs to the person in possession, and the personal improvements belong to the owner of the fee. This is real estate in its highest sense. Lands, tenements, and hereditaments, are included under the general term,, land. By including all leasehold estates, and all possessory claims and actual possession of public lands as the second class of realty, to be listed and taxed as such, then all improvements not immovable, such as buildings, fences, etc., put upon public lands, and all buildings, etc., put by the lessee upon his landlord’s estate, which, by the tenure of the lease, are not to belong to the landlord, are, in contemplation of the revenue act, subject to be removed off, and do, in fact, belong to the tenant; and of this character of property are buildings, fences, etc., on public lands of the United States; and all such property is to be listed as personal property to the owner of the buildings, etc., and not to the owner of the fee; and this is upon the ground, that no permanent fixture can attach to a mere possessory interest in land. Hence, this rule must be particularly followed in regard to public lands, where the fee is in the United States.

[413]*413If A, is the owner of land in fee, and B. lias a- leasehold estate in the land for any term, great or small, and has a shop or any other building, or fence, erected thereon by him, and which belong to him, the land in fee, with the immovable fixtures belonging to the fee, must be listed to the owner of the fee, A., as realty; the leasehold estate of B. must be listed to him as realty, and the shop, buildings, or other improvements of B., which belong to him, must be listed to him as personal property; and where a party holds a possessory interest, or claim, upon lands belonging to the United States, that interest must be listed to him as real property, particularly showing whether it be a possessory claim, leasehold estate, or whatever it may be; but his buildings and improvements on such claim must be listed to him as personal property, with a description of the property. This construction is in harmony with the provisions of section 18, aforesaid, which provides that the assessment-roll shall contain, “a list of all real estate, improvements on public lauds, and other personal property.”

All real estate extends to and includes both subdivisions of real estate above stated; all improvements on public lands means the buildings and improvements belonging to the possessory claimant, such as miners’ buildings, quartz-mills, sawmills, out-buildings, fences, etc. All personal property means all transitory personal property, of whatever nature or kind not otherwise exempt, and all but the first of these classes, are to be taken and considered as personal property.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Idaho Gold Dredging Co. v. Balderston
78 P.2d 105 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1938)
State v. Cosgrove
210 P. 393 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1922)
Donaldson v. Thousand Springs Power Co.
162 P. 334 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1916)
Dayton v. Board of Equalization
50 P. 1009 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1897)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1 Idaho 409, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-owyhee-mining-co-idaho-1871.