The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-03-16
THE TAX CASE.
Cost Of Listing Untaxed Per-
sonal Property.
Evidence Taken Regarding the Work
Done by Messrs. WelImap, Fleener
and Ssyl0r.


Brown, of Luverne, sitting together
today. The right of county commits
sioners to enter into contracts with ta1
experts for the listing of personal pro
perty that has escaped taxation has
never been passed upon by the courts
of this state, and as many OF the
counties have become parties to such
contracts, the outcome of the case on
trial today will clear the air to large
extent.
The suit heard today was that of S.
Fl. Grannis, presumably acting for in
terested tax payers, against Q. w.
Wellman, Martin Fleener, Col. Saylor,
the county board and the county audi
tor and county treasurer to restrain the
payment to the experts of about
S4,700 now in the county treas
ury for which they hold orders, and
to render their contract with the coun-
ty void. w. E. Young and 81. L..
Schmitt. of this city, and Judge
Chas C. Wilson, of Rochester, appear
ed for Mr.. Grannis, and ex-Attorney
General H w. Child, of st. Paul.
Severance g. Andrews and Judge VIM.
F. Hughes for the tax experts, and
County Attorney Thos. Hughes
for the county Board, auditor
and treasurer. The most of
the members of the county board were
present. County Attorney McCord, of
Dodge county. was present to hear the
proceedings and post himself for the
benefit of his county. Public Examiner
Pope was present as witness for the
plaintiff. A number of taxpayers were
also on hand.
The hearing commenced at shortly
before ten o'clock this forenoon.
County Auditor Gunders was the
first witness sworn for the plaintiff,
and the contract entered into
between the county and CIV. Wellman
was introduced in evidence, both the
form originally entered on the records
and the modified form. Mr.. Gunders
testified that up to the present time
there has been actually paid out under
the contract 50, sos 50. while there is
about $4,700 in the treasury for which
the experts hold warrants,
G. w. Wellman testified in regard to
the contract, and also in regard to the
cost of discovering and listing untaxed
personal property. He said that ten
people are employed on the work, and
gave lump sums that each had been
paid He said that he had turned the
work over to Messrs Fleener and Say
lor, who have been carrying out the
contract.
Martin Fleener testified along the
same line as MIR. Wellman.
Gen. Pope was the last witness for
the plaintiff and testified that the rea-
sonable compensation for such work as
is being done is not to exceed So day
for the workers and $50 day for the
chief.
This afternoon, the plaintiff admitted
that the contract had been assigned for
the purpose of security, and then
rested.
The plaintiff admitted that the con
tract had been modified, but that it had
never been published as modified.
Mr.. Fleener was the first witness for
the defense. He said that he has had
twelve years experience in the work of
discovering untaxed property, in In
diana, Illinois and Minnesota. He said
that the expense of doing the work done
under the contract with the county,
outside of. himself and Messrs. Wellman
and Saylor, was about So. 900. Three
fifths of the property added to the list
was discovered outside of Blue Earth
county, and portion of the $4,000, 900
discovered but not yet adjusted in its
None of the adjusted property was
found outside of Minnesota. The prop
erty discovered consists of notes. secur-
ed and unsecured, mortgages, land con-
tracts and cash. 1t was the experience
of the witness that the future listing of
this class of property is much larger
than before the research is made. His
work in this state had covered forty
counties, and in many of them property
was found and listed for taxation in this
county.
On cross examination, Mr.. Fleene1
stated that he had contracted with LIE
Sueur county in January for 33B pei
cent of the tax receipts due to his
work. The reason why the per centage
in this county was fifty was because il
was the first county in the state to be
contracted with and the experts had
no knowledge as to the amount of pro
perty that could be uncovered or the
amount Of litigation to be encountered
They could work for several counties
cheaper than for one. as the expens,
would be the same. Witness had con
tracted with Nicollet county in De
n N