Board of County Commissioners v. Lane

Citations

• 76 Kan. 12
• 90 P. 1092
• 1907 Kan. LEXIS 214

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Taxation- — Correction of Assessor’s Returns — Authority of County Clerk. The power given to the county clerk by section 1669 of the General Statutes of 1901 to assess personal property overlooked by the assessor is no more extensive than that granted by section 7599, which authorizes the county clerk or board of commissioners, upon notice to the property owner, to correct the assessor’s returns at any time before the final settlement with the county treasurer.</p> <p>2. —-■ Property Wrongfully Omitted from Tax-rolls of Previous Years. In view of the fact that the statute provides in express terms that where real estate has escaped taxation in any former year the amount so avoided shall be added to the tax of the current year, while no similar-provision is made in the case of personal property, section 7599 cannot be regarded as affording means for collecting the amount of taxes that ought to have been but were not imposed in previous years, but must be construed as intended merely to authorize the county clerk or board of commissioners to add to the tax-roll of the current year personal property improperly omitted therefrom.</p> <p>3. -Void Proceeding to Tax Personalty Improperly Omitted in Former Years. Where under color of sections 1669 and 7599 the county clerk and board of commissioners attempt to charge a person with the amount of tax which ought to have been but was not assessed against him in a former year on account of personal property then .owned by him, such proceeding is wholly void.</p> <p>4. -- Recovery of Money Paid under Protest. One who, to avoid the seizure and sale of his property under a tax warrant which is void because it is based upon such a proceeding, pays the amount of such charge may recover it in a proper action, notwithstanding his fault in failing to make a full statement of his taxable property in the previous year, and notwithstanding he has never discharged his moral obligation to contribute in pr