Great Northern Railway Co. v. Stevens County

Citations

• 108 Wash. 238
• 183 P. 65
• 1919 Wash. LEXIS 836

Syllabus

<p>Counties (86) —Taxation — Limitations — Necessary Expenses. Under Rem. Code, § 9213, expressly limiting the levy for county current expenses to eight mills, which is the only authority for the levy of such a tax, a tax in excess of eight mills is invalid, and cannot be sustained upon the theory that the same was required to meet necessary governmental expenses.</p> <p>Counties (86)—Power to Levy Taxes. There is no implied power in counties to levy taxes, but the same exists only by express statutory authorization.</p> <p>Appeal -(483)—Decision—Effect on Strangers—Relief to Taxpayers as Class. In an action by a taxpayer to recover excess county taxes paid, in which there is sought on behalf of all other taxpayers a perpetual injunction against the expenditure of the amount of excess taxes collected, the relief will be confined to repayment of plaintiff’s excess taxes, where no injunction was issued, the year for which the taxes were levied has long since expired, and .there was no means of knowing the circumstances under which the several taxpayers paid the excess levy.</p>