State ex rel. McLeod Lumber Co. v. Baker

70 S.W. 470, 170 Mo. 194, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 49
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 18, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 70 S.W. 470 (State ex rel. McLeod Lumber Co. v. Baker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. McLeod Lumber Co. v. Baker, 70 S.W. 470, 170 Mo. 194, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 49 (Mo. 1902).

Opinion

GANTT, J.

This is an appeal from the judgment •of the circuit court of Butler county, Missouri, quashing the record of the board of equalization of said county in which the assessment of certain real estate belonging to the McLeod Lumber Company was increased at the annual meeting of said board in April, 1899. The record recites that the court quashed the proceedings of the board of equalization for the reasons “that no order was made by said respondents acting as said board of equalization, directing and ordering the clerk or secretary thereof to give notice to the parties owners of lands, the value of which had been raised above the assessment made by the assessor; that the said board of equalization, as shown by their' said return, did not hear or act upori the protest of the relators herein pleaded before said board of equalization, and proceeded without jurisdiction.” • The return of the board of equalization contains the record, not only of the said board in the first instance, but also of the board of appeals which met on April 25,1899, to give parties whose assessments had been increased an opportunity and a day to show cause why such increase should not be made.

The propriety of the judgment quashing the record must be determined in accordance with the statute law of this State in force at the time the board of equalization raised and equalized the assessments. By section 7517, Revised Statutes 1889, the county board of equalization consists of the judges of the county court, the county surveyor, the county assessor, and the county clerk. The last named is required to act as secretary of the board, but can not vote. Among the duties imposed upon said board is that found in section 8520, Revised Statutes 1889, which provides that “they [the board of equalization] shall raise the valuation of all such tracts or parcels of land and any personal property as in their opinion have been returned below their real value, according to the rule prescribed by this article for such valuation.” And by section 7518, Revised Statutes 1889, it is made their duty “to hear complaints and to equalize the valuation and assessments upon all [199]*199real and personal property -within the county which is made taxable by law.” The propriety, even necessity, of such a board nnder an organic law which ordains that “all property subject to taxation shall be taxed in proportion to its value, ’ ’ is self-evident. That the board of equalization of Bntler county had jurisdiction to, raise the assessments of relator’s real estate in a proper way must be accepted as the settled law of this State.

But that such increase may not be made the means of unjust discrimination, it is wisely provided that “after the board shall have raised the valuation of such real estate, it shall give notice of the fact, specifying the property and the amount raised, to the persons owning or controlling the same, by personal notice through the mail, or by advertisement in any paper published in the county, and that said board will meet on the fourth Monday in April, to hear reasons, if any may be given, why such increase should not be made.” [Sec. 8520, R. S. 1889.]

This brings us to the first contention of relator, to-wit, that “said board wrongfully and without authority of law, and without any legal or proper notice to the relator, did proceed to increase the valuation of its lands. ’ ’ If by this, relator means that the board must in the first instance notify every taxpayer before it enters its provisional order increasing his ássessment, and citing him to show cause before the board as a court of appeals, why the same should not be so increased, then its position is untenable. [Black v. McGonigle, 103 Mo. 192.]

"While it is an elementary principle of our governmental system that no one can be passed upon either in his person or estate without being first afforded an opportunity to be heard, it has been ruled both by the Supreme Court of the United States and by this court that such a right does not necessarily entitle a taxpayer to a hearing prior to an assessment, but it is a sufficient compliance with.the constitutional guaranty of “due process of law,” that he shall be accorded a hearing [200]*200before some tribunal organized by law, before the tax becomes conclusive.

Mr. Justice Field in Hagar v. Reclamation District, 111 U. S. loc. cit. 708, says: “The necessity of revenue for the support of the government does not admit of the delay attendant upon proceedings in a court of justice and they are not required for the enforcement of taxes or assessments.”

And again, at page 710, he says: “But where a tax is levied on property not specifically, but according to its value, to be ascertained by assessors appointed for that purpose upon such evidence as they may obtain, a different principle comes in. The officers in estimating the value act judicially; and in most of the States provision is made for the correction of errors committed by them, through boards of revision or equalization, sitting at designated periods provided by law to hear complaints respecting the justice of the assessments. The law in prescribing the time when such complaints will be heard, gives all the notice required, and the proceeding by which the valuation is determined, though it may be followed, if the tax be paid, by a sale of the delinquent’s property, is due process of law.”

Just such a provision as was in the mind of the learned justice has been provided by our statute already quoted — and it has been ruled by this court that it violates no constitutional right of the citizen. [State ex rel. v. Cummings, 151 Mo. loc. cit. 58; State ex rel. v. Springer, 134 Mo. 212.]

But the Legislature of this State has provided, in the case of the increase of the assessment of real estate, for an additional notice to that which the statute itself gives by appointing the fourth Monday in April as the time when such complaints may be heard by the board of equalization as a court of appeals.

As the assessment of which relator complains in this case relates to its real estate, it is evident that it relies upon section 7519, Revised Statutes 1889, now section 9132, Revised Statutes 1899, to show that it was denied that notice and hearing which our laws provide [201]*201in such, a case. The circuit court assigned as one of its reasons for quashing the record of the county court of appeals and board of equalization, that “ the said board made no order directing and ordering the clerk or secretary thereof to give notice” of the raising of the assessment of relator’s property. Looking now to relator’s petition for certiorari in the circuit court, we find it alleges, ‘ ‘ That the said board proceeded to hear complaints without first having given any reasonable notice of the increased value of the said land over the assessor’s assessment; the notice having been published in two issues of the Daily Citizen, as your petitioner is informed, on Thursday and Eriday before the Monday on which the said board undertook to- hear objections to the said raise. That the said two issues of the Daily Citizen were afterward brought together in numbers one and two of what was termed the Weekly Citizen.”

Referring to the record set out in the return of the respondents, it appears that the board of equalization met on Monday, April 3,1899, and from day to day and time to time transacted the business before it and adjourned as a board of equalization on April 19, 1899, to meet as a board of appeals on Monday, the 24th of April, 1899.

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Bluebook (online)
70 S.W. 470, 170 Mo. 194, 1902 Mo. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-mcleod-lumber-co-v-baker-mo-1902.