The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-11-30
THE SCHOOL TAXES.
Judge Anderson Holds That They
are Legal and Valid.
y VERY INTERESTING OPINION.
The Case Will I've Appealed to the Supreme
SQUIRT and a Temporary Injunc-
ton is Issued.

decision in the important school tax cases
OF James Lowe ct al, B. G. Raybould, ct al.
and Edward Ashton, ct al. VS.. Collector
Hardy, in which the plaintiffs sued for an
injunction to restrain the defendant from
collecting the special school taxes assessed
in several Of the old school districts of the
city. Following is the decision in full:
These three cases were argued and SUBJ
mitted for decision together, and as they in
volve substantially the same questions and
must be disposed of in the same way, they
will be considered together in this opinion,
The material facts ayerred in the COM
plant are in substance that prior to March
-, 1890 the city of Salt Lake was divided
into twenty-one independent school dis
tricts. That in the month of December,
1889, the trustees or the qualified voters in
each of these several districts except the
Thirteenth and Eighteenth districts, pur-
suant ito the law then in force, levied or
voted tax for school purposes on the
property of said districts for the school
year beginning July l, 1890, which taxes
were placed upon the tax books for the
year 1890, and that the defendant, Hardy,
is about to proceed to collect the same;
that said taxes were to be levied, and were
levied on the assessment of property made
in 1890; that the percentage of tax levied by
the several school boards varied from 2lS
mills on each dollar in some districts to 121a
mills in others, while in districts thirteen
and eighteen no tax was levied. That by
reason of sudden and unexpected rise in
the value of real estate between the time
when said taxes were levied and the time
when the property was assessed, in the
month OF January, $780, said levies will
produce more money than will be needed
fon school purposes in the districts that
levied the same, and that the excess is so
10 tn OrnrpcSIuA that the 18th
day of March, 1890, the legislative assembly
of Utah passed an act making the
entire city of Salt Lake one school district,
and embracing within the same all the terri
tory within said twenty-cne districts, and
abolishing said districts; and providing
that the school houses and other school
property, belonging to said several school
districts, shall become the property of the
newly created school district in Salt Lake
city, and that any levy of taxes and assess
ments for school purposes that have been
or were then beng made, should be contin-
ued and completed and the taxes should be
collected and used by the Board of Educa-
ton of the school district of Salt Lake city
for school purposes; that by reason of I'M
equal percentage of taxes levied by the
several districts, the burden of taxation for
the support of the schools in the new dis
trict of Salt Lake city, for the school year
beginning July l, 1890, is rendered
the special use and benefit of
the districts will, under the pre-
sent law, be used for the benefit of por-
tions of the new district in which but a
small levy, or none at all, was made; that
the compliments are residents and tax
payers owning property within certain OF
the old districts OF said city, and they ask
that the defendant be restrained from col.
lecting said taxes, and that the tax be can.
celled. In the case of James Lowe ct al
VS.. L. G. Hardy ct al, the complaint alleges
that the compliments are taxpayers in
what was formerly school district No. II
in said district; that in December, 1889, the
people of the district voted a levy of IL
mills on the dollar for the purpose Of pay
ing of debt of s., 500 then existing against
said district and which would have pro-
duced under former valuations, the amount
required, but owing to the great advance
in value, under the assessment made in
1890, $40, 927 in excess of the amount neces-
sary to pay said debt will have to be paid by
the taxpayers of said district, and which
If collected, will accrue to the benefit OF
the entire new district of Salt Lake; that
levy OF mills on the amount of the as
sessed valuation of the property of sale
district for 1890 would raise sufficient Il
pay off said debt, which amount complain
ants aver willingness to pay, and ask tina
the other mills of said levy be cancelled
and its collection enjoined. d
Upon presentation Of these complaints
temporary restraining order was issued anC
served on defendants, and they were alst
required Is appear and show cause why al
injunction should not be issued restraining
them from collecting said tax. The de
fenddant appeared and filed demurrer
TO the complaint in each case upon tn,
ground that the complaint did not contain
fact sufficient to constitute cause O.
action or to entitle the plaintiffs to the re
Gefs demanded, or any relief whatever
1t will be impossible to discuss all tn
points urged by the very able and learne,
counsel for the plaintiffs against the valid
ity of these taxes, without extending tn
opinion to too great length.
/ shall content myself, therefore, b.
briefly referring to those principles relic,
upon:
1 1t is contended that by abolishin
the several school districts, and the repea
of the law under which the taxes wer
levied and assessed and before the assess
ment had been completed and the ia.
placed on the tax collectors books, that tn
taxes themselves were abolished and al
further proceedings in relation to said take
were rendered illegal and void.
THAT the legislature had no power t
appropriate taxes levied upon themselve
by the old school district for their own US
and not yet collected, to the use and beneti
OF the new district, composed in part of tn
territory not contributing thereto.
3-That the tax is illegal and void as
tax Tor the new district because uneuua
and not levied under a uniform rule ami
cable alike to all portions of the district
Ii is undoubtedly the general rule in tn
construction OF the statutes that, when al
act OF the legislature is repealed it is to b
considered Except as to transaction
passed and closed, as if it had never ex
lsted- But this rule is not universal
and whether applicable in particula
case depends upon the terms of the re
pealing act or the circumstances of tn
case. An act repeating statute may,prC
vide that IL shall not go into effect until
future day, in which case the former Ia,
on the subject viii remain in force unit
that day, and business may be transacte
and rights acquired and enforced under tn
old law until the repeal takes effect or
the repeating statute is to take effcC
Immediately, the legislature may, b
saving clase, provide that RICH,
accrued under the former law may /
enforced, and that actions aread
begun may be prosecuted to final d,
termination (Endlich on Statutes, sectio
1886, but saving clause has been hel
not to be necessary to authorize til
collection of the tax, where th
statute under which it was lait
was repealed after the tax had bee
assessed, but before it had been collecte
where such collection was in accordanS
with what was deemed the intention of th
legislature (Town of Belvidue VS.. Wal
rem R. r. Co., "a N. j. L., 1857 In tn;
case, the court says the retroactive effet
which is to be given to statutes is largely
question of intention, and that although il
criminal on penal matters it may be unol
iectionable to require express words in I'll
repeating act; preserve punishment an
penalties, yet nevertheless when right