Hopkins v. Van Wyck

Citations

• 80 Md. 7
• 30 A. 556
• 1894 Md. LEXIS 92

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Escaped Property- — Time of Assessment.</p> <p>If assessable property has been omitted from the assessment books, or has escaped 'assessment when it ought to have been assessed, the fact that it has not been discovered and valued and placed upon the assessment books until after the levy has been made, cannot release its owner from paying taxes on account thereof, and cannot defeat the right of the State or the municipality to collect those taxes.</p> <p>Baltimore City Code, Art. 50, sec. 5, provides that “the valuation of the property as it shall appear upon the assessors’ books on the first Monday in March, shall be final and conclusive, and constitute the basis upon which the taxes for the ensuing year shall be assessed and levied.” Defendants’testatrix died in March, 1892, having owned on the last day of February, 1892, certain personal property not on the assessment books on the first Monday of March. This property was subsequently discovered and placed on the books in May, 1892, two days after the levy for that year had been made. Held, that such property was liable to taxation for the year 1892.</p>