French v. State

Citations

• 52 Miss. 759

Syllabus

<p>1. Sheeust : Right to collect taxes.</p> <p>Tax collector, as a distinct officer, is not mentioned in the constitutions of 1817 or 1832. 'Since 1843-the duties of tax collector have pertained to the office of sheriff. The constitution of 1869 is silent as to who shall collect taxes, but provides for the election of a sheriff, etc. When the. people ratified this constitution they distinctly associated the office with the functions and privileges which before that pertained bylaw respectively to it. It would be too narrow a view to consider the framers of that instrument as referring alone to those functions incident to the sheriff at common law. When the constitution refers the election of this officer to the people, without indicating the nature of his functions other than the name itself imports, it must be implied that it means the-sheriff, with such, general attributes and authority as had been theretofore connected with the office, and declared in both the written and unwritten law. There is no provision in the Code of 1871 as to who shall collect taxes. The general subject of revenue having been -revised and consolidated in the Code of 1871, all former laws in relation thereto are repealed by. § 8 of . that Code. Since 1871 the legislature has frequently referred to the collector as an officer established in the government, and has declared rules and regulations-as to the collection of taxes. This is a contemporaneous legislative interpretation that the constitution intended that the sheriff should have the rights, authority, and functions which pertained to him at common law, modified and suited to the condition of society here, and also those general rights which had been imposed by statute.</p> <p>2. Same : Failure to execute separate bond as tax collector.</p> <p>The law from 1843 to 1871 required the sheriff to give two bonds, one as sheriff, the other as tax collector, and makes the failure to execute the bond a forfeiture of the office. The subject of