Williams v. Triche

Citations

• 107 La. 92

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. As long as the present legal ownership of trees standing upon the root3 upon a plantation remain in the owner of the land, they must be assessed with the land and as forming part of it.</p> <p>2. Where the owner of land makes a contract with another by which he conveys the latter rights in respect to the trees standing by the roots on the land, but rights which fall short of conveying present ownership thereto, assessors are not warranted in separating, for the purposes of assessment the trees from the land, and making the trees the object of direct taxation as corporeal movables, distinct from the land to which they are attached. They cannot bring about a severance in the present ownership of the trees, and the land which does not result legally from the contract. The liability of the party who makes such a contract with the land owner to taxation under his contract rights, would not be enforceable under an assessment made in his name upon the trees themselves.</p> <p>3. Individuals may make agreements or dispositions as to taxation and as to the payment of taxes which may be binding as between themselves, but such agreements or dispositions cannot have effect as against the State, when, thereby, the parties themselves or the objects of taxation with which they deal are not brought within the grasp of the laws governing taxes and the enforcement of taxes. Assessors and tax collectors, in their action, cannot go outside the existing statutes.</p>