Erskine v. Hohnbach

Citations

• 81 U.S. 613
• 20 L. Ed. 745
• 14 Wall. 613
• 1871 U.S. LEXIS 1027

Syllabus

<p>1. An appeal to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from an assessment is only a condition precedent to an action for the recovery of taxes paid, and not a condition precedent to any other action where such action is permissible.</p> <p>2. A collector of taxes of the United States cannot revise or refuse to enforce an assessment regularly made by the assessor of his district in the exercise' of the latter’s jurisdiction. The duties of a collector in the enforcement of a tax assessed are purely ministerial. The assessment, duly certified to him, is his authority to proceed, and constitutes his protection.</p> <p>3. If an officer or tribunal possess jurisdiction over the subject-matter upon which judgment is passed, with power to issue an order or process for the enforcement of such judgment, and the order or process issued thereon to a ministerial officer is regular on its face, showing no departure from the law, or defect of jurisdiction over the person or property affected, then, and in such cases, the order or process will give full and entire protection to the ministerial officer in its regular enforcement against any prosecution' which the party aggrieved thereby may institute against him, although serious errors may have been committed by the officer or tribunal in reaching the conclusion or judgment upon which the order or process is issued.</p> <p>4. The replication of de injuria, interposed to a special plea, justifying the seizure'and conviction of property sued for by one as collector of internal revenue under an assessment against the plaintiff, duly made by the assessor of the district and certified to him, puts in issue the material averments of that plea. It throws upon the defendant the burden of proving so much of the plea as. constitutes a defence to the action.</p> <p>5. When to a declaration two special pleas are interposed, each setting up substantially the same defence, and by the replication to one issue is joined on the merits, and by the