Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Snohomish County

Citations

• 101 Wash. 686

Syllabus

<p>Judgment—Res Judicata — Identity of Parties. A judgment in mandamus at the suit of the mayor of a city compelling a county tax assessor to extend a tax levy upon the county rolls, is not res judicata or a bar to an action by a taxpayer to cancel taxes against his property based upon the levy; since the parties are not the same, either actually, or potentially as a member of a class.</p> <p>Courts—Rule of Decision'—Stare Decisis. A writ of mandate compelling a county assessor to extend a tax levy upon the county rolls is not controlling under the rule of stare decisis, in a taxpayer’s suit contesting the tax, where there was no general acquiescence of long standing by taxpayers nor any vested rights acquired under the former judgment.</p> <p>Municipal Corporations—Tax Levies—Validation—Statutes—, Construction. Rem. Code, § 5140-4, validating 1913 and 1914 tax levies by cities of the third class made in excess of limitations by statute, with the proviso that the act shall not apply to such cities as “did not attempt to collect such levies, or which cancelled the same,” validates all excess levies mentioned except in cities where no taxpayer had paid the excess tax at the time of the passage of the validating act; this construction of “attempt to collect,” when cities have no- power to make the collection or to cancel the tax, being necessary to avoid an obvious absurdity.</p> <p>Same. In such a case, a mandamus suit to enforce a levy would not be within the proviso as an “attempt to collect,” when the suit was not brought until after the passage of the validating act.</p> <p>Holcomb, J., dissents.</p>