Central Pac. Ry. Co. v. Evans

Citations

• 111 F. 71
• 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 4951

Syllabus

<p>1. Equity Jurisdiction—Enjoining Illegal Assessment—Adequate Remedy at Law.</p> <p>A court of equity lias jurisdiction of a suit to enjoin the assessment of complainant’s property for taxation in a manner not authorized by the laws of the state, such remedy being the only one which affords adequate and appropriate relief by requiring the assessment to be made in a lawful manner.</p> <p>2. Taxation—Legality op Assessment—Powers op Special Tribunal.</p> <p>Const. Nev. art. 10, § 1, requires the legislature to' provide by law “for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation,” and the statute enacted in pursuance of such requirement (Cutting’s Comp. Laws, § 1084) provides that each county assessor shall ascertain by diligent inquiry and examination all property in his county, real and personal, subject to taxation, and shall “determine the true cash value of all such jiroperty.” By Act March 16, 1901, it was provided that the county assessors of the state shall meet at the capital each year, “and shall at such meetings establish throughout the state a uniform valuation of all classes of property which, by their character, will admit of such uniform valuation.” Such act requires each county assessor to fix the valuation of property assessed by him at the valuation “placed on the same class of property” at the annual meeting, and imposes a penalty for a violation of such requirement, but provides that property not designated at the annual meeting shall be valued under the existing provisions of law. Held, that the board of assessors so created was a special tribunal, whose powers were strictly limited to those expressly conferred by the act, which were to fix the valuation of property by classification upon some reasonable basis, where it admitted of such classification; that such board had no power, without making a classification of railroad property, to designate a railroad company by name, and by a vote of its members fix the valuation per mile of its railr