State ex rel. First Thought Gold Mines, Ltd. v. Superior Court

Citations

• 93 Wash. 433
• 161 P. 77
• 1916 Wash. LEXIS 1221

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Excessive Assessment — Reduction — Penalty — Interest — Statutes. Where a taxpayer has suffered, an excessive assessment and tendered a sum which he considered fair, based upon a valuation alleged to be consistent with the valuation upon other land, and the tax is set aside and reduced as fraudulently excessive, the amount found due by the court does not draw interest at the rate of fifteen per cent per annum, under Rem. 1915 Code, § 9219, providing that delinquent taxes shall draw interest at fifteen per cent per annum from the date of delinquency; in the absence of any provision in the statute for the payment of interest or the remission of interest where a tax is questioned, either in whole or in part.</p> <p>Same. Interest on delinquent taxes is a penalty, and a penalty that is illegal in part is wholly void.</p> <p>Same. A judgment of the supreme court directing a judgment in a reduced sum for a fraudulently excessive tax does not provide for the fifteen per cent penalty which attaches to delinquent taxes only by force of statute.</p>