Adams v. Capital State Bank

Citations

• 74 Miss. 307

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal Ordinances. Construction. SwrpVasage.</p> <p>A municipal ordinance fixing in its first section a rate of taxation on all property, except banks and solvent credits, and by its second section fixing a lower rate on banks and solvent credits, cannot be held to impose the greater rate on banks. The exception in the first section and the second section cannot be treated as surplusage.</p> <p>2. Same. Municipal taxes. Variant rates.</p> <p>If a municipality be without power to impose a lesser rate of taxation on a class of property than that imposed on property generally, and yet attempts to do so by ordinance, if the ordinance be not wholly void, the aggrieved parties are those upon whose property the greater burden was sought to be imposed.</p> <p>3. Taxation. Levy. Payment.</p> <p>A levy of a tax is indispensable to create a legal obligation to pay it. A taxpayer who has paid all taxes undertaken to be imposed upon his property, is not in default for not having paid more thereon.</p> <p>4. Constitution. Statutes.</p> <p>An act of the legislature should never be held to be violative of the constitution, unless the right of a litigant in the case before the court requires it to be done.</p>