LOUISVILLE & NASHVILLE RAILROAD COMPANY, A CORPORATION, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR JACKSON COUNTY, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of a petition by Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company challenging a school tax assessment in Jackson County. The court held that the statutory remedy under Section 1542 of the Revised Statutes was limited to clerical errors in assessment rolls and did not extend to procedural irregularities in the tax election process.
The remedy under Section 1542 is limited to clerical errors in extending assessments on the rolls and does not encompass procedural defects in the tax election process. The statute applies only to mistakes such as misnaming the owner, misdescription of property, duplicate listings, or arithmetical errors in calculating totals.
“It is a remedy allowed by the State in favor of persons and bodies corporate to have annulled an assessment of property in proceedings to collect revenue for governmental purposes on account of illegality in matters of law connected with the assessment”
Establishes the limited scope of the statutory remedy to illegality in matters of law, not valuations or procedural matters.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe railroad company filed a petition to declare void an assessment imposed by a three mill special school tax levy in Jackson County. The attack was …
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Cockrell, J.
A petition was filed under Section 1542 Revised Statutes of 1892, to have declared not lawfully made an assessment upon portion of the petitioner’s railroad in a designated division of Jackson county, by reason of a levy of a three mill special school tax, imposed by the State Comptroller. The attack upon the assessment is confined wholly to alleged irregularities in publishing the notices preliminary to the calling of an election to decide whether the district would impose the tax, and to select trustees should the tax be carried. A demurrer to the second amended petition interposed by the Jackson County Board of Public Instruction was sustained and the petitioner declining to amend further the petition was dismissed.
There were many grounds technical and substantial named in the demurrer, on which the action of the court in sustaining the demurrer might well be placed, but we prefer planting an affirmance squarely upon the inadequacy of the statutory remedy pursued to reach the alleged defect.
In Jackson County v. Thornton, 44 Fla. 610, 33 South. Rep. 291, where the statute is set out in full, we called attention to the summary nature of the statute, with no provision for parties, the limited power conferred upon the Circuit Judge, and that its scope should not be broad. “It is a remedy allowed by the State in favor of persons and bodies corporate to have annulled an assessment of property in proceedings to collect revenue for governmental purposes on account of illegality in matters of law connected with the assessment” and does not embrace the subject of valuations.” That case followed in its limitations upon the act, the early construction placed thereon in Shear v. County Commissioners of Columbia County, 14 Fla. 146. Keeping in mind then the narrow scope of the statute, we are called upon to define the word “assessment” therein used. “Valuation” as an incident to the term has been eliminated by our decisions and it seems to us there is nothing left but the clerical act of extending in the assessment rolls the name of the party assessed, the description of the property, the value as fixed by the proper tribunal, the millage for various purposes and the total amount of the tax. For mistakes in these clerical duties the Circuit Judge is made a reviewing officer, with power merely to “declare the assessment not lawfully made.” As instance where the statute may operate, we may cite the misnaming of the owner, misdescription of the land, duplicate listing of the same land, or an arithmetical mistake in carrying out the totals.
The summary remedy provided, without notice to anyone and without power in the Circuit Judge to suspend action pending the proceeding to test whether the “assessment” was lawfully made, will not be extended to a proceeding with a scope as broad or broader than a formal bill in equity and a quo warranto combined.
Judgment affirmed.
Shackleford, C. J., and Whitfield, J., concur. Taylor and Hocker, JJ., concur in the opinion.
Parkhill, J., disqualified.
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Atl. Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Amos, 94 Fla. 588 (Fla. 1927)…value ascertained and stated. * * * A ‘levy’ of taxes is distinguished in that a levy is a legislative function, and declares the subjects and rate of taxation.” Cooley on Taxation, Secs. 16, and 1012; L. & N. R. Co. v. Board of Public Instruction, 50 Fla. 222, 39 So. 480. “A specially created district has no inherent power to tax. It has no power to tax except in so far as the power is clearly indicated.” Cooley on Taxation, Sec. 130. “No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of jaw.” Sec. 3, Article…
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Knight v. Matson, 53 Fla. 609 (Fla. 1907)…ding is that the assessment is not lawfully made. Shear v. Commissioners Columbia County, 14 Fla. 146; Jackson County v. Thornton, 44 Fla. 610, 33 South Rep. 291; Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Board of Public Instruction for Jackson County, 50 Fla. 222, 39 South. Rep. 480. In Shear v. Commissioners Columbia County, supra, the office of the petition under this statute is compared to that of a writ of error at common law, a certiorari in the nature of a writ of error, and it is suggested that, if th…
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The Cnty. of Dade v. Hardee, 56 Fla. 243 (Fla. 1908)…he assessment rolls the name of the party assessed, the description of the property, the value as fixed by the proper tribunal, the millage for various purposes and the total amount of the tax.” Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Board of Public Instruction, 50 Fla. 222, 39 South. Rep. 480; Knight v. Matson, 53 Fla. 609, 43 South. Rep. 695. As the defendants or illegalities sought to be reached by the petition in the instant case do not relate to the assessment but pertain to the levy of the tax, the demurrer shou…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Shear v. Cnty. Comm'rs of Columbia Cnty., 14 Fla. 146 (Fla. 1872)
- The Cnty. of Jackson v. Thornton, 44 Fla. 610 (Fla. 1902)