Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-16
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
Corporations and Others Must Dis
close Personal Property.
ASSESSORS AND COMMISSIONERS
Are on Top and Supported by Decision Of
the Supreme Court,
AND SAVINGS BANKS ARE NOT EXEMPT

Further inquiry was made Yesterday re-
garding the case of the firms who claim ex-
emptiOn from report of personal property to
the assessors claiming the right to report
directly to the Auditor General. County
Solicitor Geyer stated that the assessment
would be made without further preliminaries,
| and that in case it became necessary the
Commissioners would be compelled to add
the so per cent penalty under the plain pro-
visions of the law. County Commits
sioner Mercer was not inclined to
say much about the matter, but he
did say that there appeared to be no doubt
as to the duty of the Commissioners in the
case and that was In cases of refusal the as
SCISSOR must go on the best date he could
find and the Commissioners add the penalty.
he referred the reporter to Law Librarian
Digby.
The Attorney General says the Dollar
Savings Bank is subject to the tax, and
further, that attorneys for savings banks,
one of them identical in its powers, fran
chises, etc., with the Dollar Savings Bank,
appeared before the Legislative Committee
when the bill was pending and argued
against it, and that these attorneys all con-
tended that it would affect savings banks, as
the Commissioners here hold.
JUSTICE STERRETT's RULING.
Mr.. Digby found the appeal of Charles
F. Van Mort. tax collector of Lackawanna
county, which covers the case absolutely.
The case is reported in the twentY-second
volume of weekly Notes of Cases." Jo-
seph j, Albright complainant. The opinion
was rendered by Sterrett last year. The
gist of the decision is that complainant,
having refused to make the return re-
quired by the supplement of 1885,
it was the duty Of the assessor
to make it for him. He paid no attention
to the notice of assessment and day of ap-
peal, and persistently refused to make the
return demanded. With all his stubborn
ness Albright excited sympathy, as his
blunder cost him over $4,000 in addition to
court costs, and he was not acting for himself,
but as a trustee.
The Judge says: LAS was said in Fix's
appeal (112 Pa. S37), it was intended (by
the act), to compel each taxpayer TO dis
close to the assessor the full extent
of his personal estate, and to avoid
the unequal burdens which had been laid
upon the shoulders of some persons by the
neglect of others to return the full amount
of their property. No legal objection can be
made to this.
RIGHTS OF THE STATE.
eff the State has right to tax moneys at
interest in the hands of her citizens, and
this cannot be denied, she has a right to
know to what extent each citizen holds such
property. Further" he says. ''she has the
right to punish by assessing the penalty.
Persons who neglect or refuse to make re-
turn are, by their own act, in default, and
caught in a prima facie attempt to avoid
their share of the public burden. The ap-
peal to the Commissioners is in general an
ample remedy.
"All the cases assert the doctrine that when
the general power to assess exists, the proper
remedy for illegal taxation is by appeal to
those to whom the appeal is required to be
taken, and if none be given, neither the
Common Pleas nor this Court, can revise
the Judgment of the tax officers. Indeed it
would be most ruinous consequence, if,
just when the collector comes around with
his warrant to demand taxes assessed
in due form of law by those having
the general power to tax, a court of
equity could interfere by injunction. It
will not do to permit the collection of taxes
to be interfered with by such persons unless
in the clearest cases of want of jurisdiction
in the assessing and collecting officers De-
cree reversed, injunction dissolved and
costs OF appeal put on appellee"
As Judge Sterrett cites over 100 cases in
support, it is to be supposed that the gen.
eral practice and doctrine will make it risky
to dodge, if assessors are conscientious.