City of Wilmington v. James Sprunt & Son

Citations

• 19 S.E. 348
• 114 N.C. 310

Syllabus

<p>Garnishment — City Taxes — Authority of Collector — Constitutional Law — Exemptions—Earnings of Laborers.</p> <p>3.Where a city charter provides that the. Tax-collector shall have all the powers vested by law in Sheriffs or Tax-collectors for the collection of taxes due the State, such City Tax-collector has the right to collect by gaimi,shoeing any one indebted to a delinquent taxpayer where no tangible property can be found belonging to the latter sufficient to satisfy the taxes.</p> <p>2. The grant of the same authority to a City Tax-collector as is possessed by a Sheriff' in collecting taxes provides for a continual conformity as the general law is from time to time modified; therefore, where a city charter adopted in 1877 gave to its Tax-collector the same powers as to the collection of taxes as Sheriffs had. and the power of the Sheriff to collect by garnishment at that time only extended to poll-taxes but was, by chapter 137, Acts of 1887, enlarged so as to extend to all taxes, the authority of the City Tax-collector was likewise increased.</p> <p>3. A delinquent tax-payer is not deprived by garnishment proceedings “of due process of law” where he has had legal notice by listing his taxes and an opportunity to have the amount, if erroneous, or the valuation, if excessive, reduced.</p> <p>4. An objection, if it were tenable, that a delinquent tax-payer (whose wages in the hands of his employer had been attached in garnishment proceedings) had not had his “ day in court ” could only be raised by the tax-payer himself and not by the garnishee.</p> <p>5. A tax-list in the hands of the officer to whom it has been delivered for the collection of taxes has the force of a judgment and execution.</p> <p>(5. There is no exemption of any property whatever from the payment of taxes.</p> <p>7. The exemption of earnings for sixty days allowed to a judgment debtor under section 493 of The Code applies only as to proceedings on judgments for private debts and not to taxes