White River Lumber Co. v. State

2 S.W.2d 25, 175 Ark. 956, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 43
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 9, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 2 S.W.2d 25 (White River Lumber Co. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White River Lumber Co. v. State, 2 S.W.2d 25, 175 Ark. 956, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 43 (Ark. 1928).

Opinion

Smith, J.

This suit was filed by the State of Arkansas, on the relation of the Attorney General, on July 25, 1925, against the White River Lumber Company, a foreign corporation, hereinafter referred to as the company, to recover, on behalf of the State and its political subdivisions, certain back taxes alleged to be due by the company. The suit was brought to recover back taxes alleged to be due upon the intangible value of the company’s capital stock, but interrogatories propounded to the company developed the fact that it owned no property in this State except its real estate, and about that time the opinion of this court was delivered in the case of State ex rel. Attorney General v. Lion Oil & Refining Co., 171 Ark. 209, 284 S. W. 33, in which it was held that the capital stock of a foreign corporation which is neither located nor used within the boundaries of the State could not be assessed for taxation in this State. An amended complaint, was filed, in which it was alleged that the company owned large tracts of timbered lands in the counties of Desha, Phillips, Monroe and Arkansas, which had been grossly under-assessed for purposes of taxation for the years 1915 to 1925, inclusive.

The amended complaint contained a list of the company’s lands on which it was alleged that taxes had been paid at under-valuations. This list contains 191 descriptions, located in 105 different sections in the four counties named.

It was stipulated that the State Tax Commission had ordered an assessment of all property in the State at 50 per cent, of the market value, but the court found the fact to be that this direction had not been obeyed by the assessing officers, and that property in the counties mentioned had been assessed at only 30 per cent, of its value. Witnesses who testified on this feature of the case differed widely as to what per cent, of the value had been assessed, some placing it higher and others lower than the .30 per cent, found by the court. Without reviewing this testimony, we announce our conclusion to be that the finding of the court below on this question does not appear to be against the preponderance of the evidence.

A large amount of testimony was taken, and we have before us a voluminous record. The testimony on the part of the State was directed principally to a showing of the amount and value of the timber on the lands, which fixed the value thereof.

The testimony on the part of the company was to the effect that all timbered lands in the counties mentioned had been assessed at from $4'to $5 per acre, and that those of the company were of about the same average value as the lands of other owners, and that it would be discriminatory to assess the lands of the company at a higher valuation for purposes of taxation. It was also shown that, during the years for which the State asks back assessments, large quantities of the timber had been stolen, and .that in recent years large quantities had been sold, and that the value of the lands was proportionately reduced.

The court, in fixing the value of the lands, divided them into five groups, those in Desha, Phillips and Monroe counties comprising three of the groups. The fourth group was composed of all the lands in Arkansas County, except the lands referred to as “Big Island,” which last mentioned body of lands composed the fifth group. The court found the value of the Big Island lands for the years 1915 to 1925, inclusive, to be $50 per acre, and the value of all the other groups to be $33.33 for each of these years, and directed that they be back-assessed for all those years at 30 per cent, of the value stated, less credits for the timber stolen and sold. No attempt was made to.show from what tracts of land timber had been sold or stolen, and the court directed that the total amount of these two items be apportioned to the entire acreage, and the valuations were credited with these apportioned amounts. The valuations thus fixed by the court were further reduced by the valuations upon which taxes had been paid.

As a result of this finding and decree, taxes were charged against the entire body of land in the sum of $79,033.63, and it was ordered that the lien for the taxes which the court decreed be enforced against each separate tract. From this decree the company has appealed, and the State has cross-appealed, and it is now insisted on behalf of the State that the lien for the taxes should be enforced against the lands as a body or as a personal .judgment against the company.

Before further reciting or discussing the testimony, we proceed to consider the legal principles which must be taken into account and be followed in passing upon the issues of fact.

The State is proceeding under the provisions of the back tax law, which appear as §§ 10204 et seq., C. & M. Digest. ‘Section 10204 was enacted at the 1913 session of the General Assembly (Acts 1913, page 724) as act 169, the title of the act being: “An act to amend § 1 of act No. 354 of the Acts of 1911, approved May 30, 1911.”

This act of 1913 was passed shortly after the opinion of this court was delivered in the case of State ex rel. Attorney General v. Kansas City & M. Ry. & Bridge Co., 106 Ark. 248, 153 S. W. 614, and was, no doubt, intended to remedy certain supposed defects in the then existing back tax law. In that case the suit was for: back taxes alleged to be due upon the bridge owned by the defendant corporation, which the complaint alleged had been assessed for taxation at only about one-sixth of its true value. A' demurrer to this complaint was sustained, and the State appealed; Upon the appeal to this court it was held that, where a corporation has paid the taxes on the annual assessments made on its property, the State could not recover additional taxes, where a mere mistake had been made in assessing the property too low, and that a review of the assessments by the courts would be permitted only when the assessing boards or officers had proceeded on the wrong basis of valuation, in omitting some property or element of value or in adopting the wrong basis in estimating value, and it was further held that the policy of the law was to treat the find-’ ing of the assessors, supervising boards and commissions as final, except when otherwise expressly provided by the statute.

This opinion was delivered January 20,1913, and the act of 1913, which appears as § 10204, O. & M. Digest, was approved March 12, 1913. By this amendatory act it was provided that, “Where the Attorney General is satisfied * * * that, 'in consequence of the failure, from any cause, to assess and levy taxes, or because of any pretended assessment and levy of taxes upon any basis of valuation other than the true value in money of any property hereinafter mentioned, or because of any inadequate or insufficient valuation or assessment of such property, or undervaluation thereof, or from any other cause, there are overdue and unpaid taxes owing to the State or -any county or municipal corporation, or road district, or school district, by any corporation, upon any property now in this State which belonged to any corporation at the time such taxes should have been properly assessed and paid, that it shall become his duty to at once institute a suit or suits in chancery in the name of the State of Arkansas, for the collection of the same, in any county in which the corporation owing such taxes may be found * * * ,”

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Bluebook (online)
2 S.W.2d 25, 175 Ark. 956, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-river-lumber-co-v-state-ark-1928.