State v. Nelson

119 N.W. 1058, 107 Minn. 319, 1909 Minn. LEXIS 560
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMarch 12, 1909
DocketNos. 15,743, 15,744—(39, 40)
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 119 N.W. 1058 (State v. Nelson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Nelson, 119 N.W. 1058, 107 Minn. 319, 1909 Minn. LEXIS 560 (Mich. 1909).

Opinion

START, C. J.

Judgment was entered in the district court of the county of Hennepin in favor of the state and against the defendant, Nelson, in the sum of $447.85 for personal property taxes for the year 1906. Both parties appealed from the judgment.

There is little, if any, dispute as to the material facts, which are as follows: The defendánt at all times herein stated was a resident of the city of Minneapolis and a citizen of this state and of the United States. He made no return that year of his personal property for taxation. Thereupon the assessor on June 12, 1906, listed for taxation as his personal property certain items of personal property, consisting of household goods, automobiles, carriages, and other articles, of the aggregate value of $3,735, as to which there is no controversy. The list contained no credits nor stocks. On July 5, 1906, the assessor, upon a separate list, listed other personal property for taxation as the property of the defendant, describing it as “credits other than of banks, bankers, brokers, or stock jobbers,” and arbitrarily assessed and valued the same at $50,000. The defendant duly appeared and made timely objection to the second assessment. Thereupon the city board of equalization reduced the item of credits to $25,000, leaving the defendant’s total assessment for personal property at $28,735, which, less the exemption of $100, was the basis of his personal property taxes, for the year 1906, $744.51. On May 1, 1906, the defendant was the owner of shares of the capital stock of a foreign corporation, organized and having its property in the state of Washington, where it paid taxes on its property, of the value of $20,000, none of which was listed for taxation, either by the defendant, or the assessor, or any board of equalization, and was not included in or covered by the item of “credits.” The corporation owned no property in this state. Dn that day the defendant was the owner of credits to the amount of $13,600, none of which was listed by him. He was then indebted in the sum of $61,500, but he failed at any time to make any affidavit stating the residence of any person to whom he owed any debt and its character. He stated, in reference to his indebtedness, in an affidavit presented to the board of equalization, this: “Owing to banks, $20,000; owing to individuals, $41,500” — and nothing more. Nor did he on the trial, nor at any time so far as the record discloses, make this statement as to his indebted[321]*321ness any more specific, except to state that $21,000 of it was for the purchase price of the stock.

The trial court, as a conclusion of law, found that the defendant was not entitled to deduct from his credits an indebtedness owed by him, because he had failed to make an affidavit as required by R. L,. 1905, § 836, and that no part of the tax claimed by the state could be sustained by reason of the stock owned by the defendant, as it was never listed or assessed for taxation in the year 1906. This left the aggregate amount of the assessment $17,335, and the tax was reduced accordingly.

1. The assignments of error on the part of the defendant are to the effect that the assessment was arbitrary and void; hence the court erred in holding any portion of the tax valid, and also in adjudging that the defendant by his failure to return a list of his personal property for taxation lost the right to offset his debts ag'ainst his credits, and, further, that the judgment deprives the defendant of his property without due process of law. The question so raised.must be determined with reference to the precise facts of this case and the statute and judicial decisions of our own state relating to the assessment of personal property for' taxation and the collection of the same.

Now the short, unpoetic facts of this case are that the defendant made no return of his taxable personal property to the assessor as the law required; that the assessor, in default of such return, arbitrarily assessed and valued his credits in the sum of $50,000, which presumably he believed to be the true value thereof, in the absence of definite information which the defendant might have furnished but did not; that he had notice of such assessment, and appeared before the board of equalization, and filed an affidavit as to his credits and debts, which as to his debts was clearly insufficient, if he desired to have deducted his debts from his credits; and, further, that on the trial the tax on credits was sustained only to the extent of their actual value, without any deductions for debts. It is clear that, if the defendant by the decision of the court is required to pay a greater tax than he would have been required to pay if there had been a deduction of his debts from his credits, it is the result of his own failure to comply with the law, and not of any arbitrary action of any public officer or erroneous decision of the court. This conclusion follows from the decisions of this [322]*322court, which are to the effect that the right to deduct debts from credits for the purpose of taxation is purely a statutory one; hence the legislature may withhold the right or grant it on such conditions as it deems proper.. Our statute (R. R. 1905, § 836) gives the right only upon the express condition that the person claiming the deduction makes an affidavit stating the names and residences of the persons to whom he owes the debts, and showing that they are bona fide, and that such right can only be secured by a substantial compliance with this express condition, which is a reasonable and businesslike one. State v. Willard, 77 Minn. 190, 79 N. W. 829; State v. London & N. A. Mtge. Co., 80 Minn. 277, 83 N. W. 339. The case of State v. Northern Pacific Ry. Co., 95 Minn. 43, 103 N. W. 731, has no application to this case for the decision in that case rests upon its exceptional facts.

We hold for the reasons stated that the trial court did not err in holding that the defendant had lost his right to offset his debts against his credits, and that the judgment herein does not deprive him of his property without due process of law.

2. The appeal of the state raises the question whether shares of the capital stock of a foreign corporation, whose property is not within this state and which is taxed in the state of its origin, owned by a resident of this state is subject to taxation in this state; and, if so, did the trial court err in holding that the stock here in question could not be taken into consideration in determining the amount for which judgment should be awarded? R. R. 1905, § 794, and section 797, subd. 10, provide that:

“Property Subject to Taxation. — All real and personal property in this state, and all personal property of persons residing therein, including the property of corporations, banks, banking companies, and bankers, is taxable, except such as is by law exempt from taxation.”

“Personal Property Defined. — Personal property, for the purposes of taxation, shall be construed to include”:

“10. All shares in foreign corporations owned by residents of this .state.”

This statute in express terms makes all shares in foreign corporations owned by residents of this state subject to taxation therein. The propriety and justice of such a statute is a mooted question, with which [323]*323courts have nothing to do, if it be constitutional. Counsel for the defendant contends that it is not, for the reason that it violates sections 1 and 3 of article 9 of the state constitution as to equality and uniformity in taxation, and, further, that it is double taxation of the same property.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 N.W. 1058, 107 Minn. 319, 1909 Minn. LEXIS 560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-nelson-minn-1909.