First Thought Gold Mines, Ltd. v. Stevens County

Citations

• 91 Wash. 437
• 157 P. 1080
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1070

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Assessment—Mining Lands — Overvaluation—Reduction. An assessment of 141.7 acres of mineral land for various years at $80,000 to $40,000 will be reduced as grossly inequitable and palpably excessive and hence constructively fraudulent, where it appears that the vein or lode of paying ore has either been completely exhausted or so hopelessly lost as to mate the property not an operating mine but a mere prospect, with no paying ore in sight, while the assessment was based upon a value as an operating mine and its past performances, and that its fair value as a prospect did not exceed from $50,000 the first year to $10,000 for subsequent years.</p>