Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. State

Citations

• 84 Wash. 510

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Railroads—Valuation op Property — Intangible Elements. The intangible value inhering to railroad operating property, arising from density of traffic and volume of business along the line, the nature of the country through which the line runs, the facilities for transacting railroad business owned and operated by private individuals, the price of its fuel supply, the resources of the country adjacent to the line, and the density of the population living contiguous thereto, is not the same as the personal element of “good-will” which attaches to business concerns counducted by private parties, but these elements add to the value of the property the same as locality may give enhanced value to real estate.</p> <p>Taxation — Railroads—Valuation — Elements — Intangible Interests — Assessments—Uniformity—Statutes. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 9141 and 9148, providing that the state board of tax commissioners, in valuing, for the purposes of assessment, all the operating and other real and personal property of a railroad company, shall consider the value of the entire system and of the part within the state, together with such facts as will enable a substantially correct determination of its assessment value to be had, subject to revision by the state board of equalization, and under 3 Id., § 8626-92, providing that, when the public service commission shall have valued the property of any company, nothing less than the market value as found shall be taken as the true value of property used for public convenience for the purposes of taxation, the assessing officers, after determining the cost of reproduction of a railroad’s property to be $109,267,908, and the actual cash market value to be $98,016,646, may further take into consideration the density of traffic and volume of business along the company’s lines in this state, the nature of the country through which it runs, its facilities for transacting railroad business owned and operated by private individuals,