Yellowstone Packing Etc. Co. v. Hays

Injunction ? Taxation ? Overassessment ? Boards of County Commissioners ? Remission of Delinquent Taxes Unlawful ? Counties ? Powers ? Reduction for Overassessment ? Statutory Method Exclusive. Taxation ? County Commissioners Without Power to Compromise or Remit Delinquent Taxes. 1. Under section 2222, Revised Codes 1921, authorizing the board of county commissioners to refund taxes when paid more than once or erroneously or illegally collected, it is without power to remit taxes which have never been paid or compromise delinquent taxes, and under section 39 of Article V of the state Constitution, - Page 2 forbidding the release, remission or extinguishment of any obligation due the state or a municipal corporation therein, "except by payment thereof into the proper treasury," the legislature may not confer such power. Counties Subject to Legislative Control. 2. A county is a political subdivision of the state for governmental purposes and as such is subject to legislative control, except in so far as restricted by the Constitution in express terms or by necessary implication. Same ? Powers. 3. Aside from powers expressly conferred upon it by statute and those of necessity implied, a county, or its board of commissioners, possesses none, and where a reasonable doubt exists as to the existence of a particular power, it must be resolved against it. Taxation ? Overassessments ? Reduction ? Statutory Method Exclusive. 4. The remedy provided by section 2115, Revised Codes 1921, for overassessments, by the filing of a written application for reduction with the county board of equalization, verified by the applicants oath, showing the facts upon which the reduction is asked, is exclusive; where the aggrieved party neglects to avail himself of such remedy, he may not assail the assessment collaterally nor invoke the aid of the courts for redress of his grievance, except where fraud or the adoption of a fundamentally wrong principle of assessment is shown. Same ? Overassessment not Alone Sufficient to Show Constructive Fraud on Part of Taxing Officers. 5. The mere fact that an owners property was assessed much higher than like property belonging to his neighbors does not show constructive fraud in the assessment, and where alleged overassessments were made upon returns subscribed and verified by the complaining owner himself, the assertion that a fundamentally wrong principle of assessment had been employed, and thus that his case fell within the exception referred to in the paragraph above, is without merit. Same ? Case at Bar ? Relief from Issuance of Tax Deed by Injunction for Overassessment held Properly Denied. 6. Under the above rules, held, in an action by a property owner to enjoin a county treasurer from issuing a tax deed; that defendant properly refused to obey an order of the county board of equalization, made in excess of its jurisdiction (see par. 1, above), to the effect that he accept about one-third of the delinquent taxes due on the property as a compromise, and that judgment dismissing the complaint was correct.