Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-18
REGARDING TAXATION
CLASSIFICATION OF MACHINERY
UNDER CONSIDERATION.
Should Be Assessed as Realty, Accord
ing to Attorney Duvan-Defi-
milton of Carriages

The District Commissioners today re-
ceived two important legal opinions from
the corporation counsel Mr. A.. B. Duvall.
One of these involved the determination as
To whether or not the machinery in mill
or other plant shall be assessed as real
property or as personal property Mr.. Du-
vail holds that the weight of the law places
such machinery in the category of real es-
tate, and that 1t should be assessed as such
in the District. The second opinion was in
regard to the garbage contract between
the District of Columbia and the Washing
ton Fertilizer Company, involving the
definition of the word garbage as to in
GLIDING a certain class of material which
the company has been called upon to col
lect
The opinion with regard to the status OF
mill machinery was rendered upon the pro-
test of Jesse H. Wilson, attorney for Will
liam H. Tenney, against the assessment of
the machinery in the latter's mill as per
sonal property" The board of personal tax
appraisers were of the opinion that the ma
chinery referred to was properly assessable
as personal property, and this opinion was
evidently held by the board of real estate
assessors, as they failed to include 1t in
the assessment as real estate. The matter
was referred to Corporation Counsel Du-
vail for his opinion as to the proper method
Of assessing this machinery.
In making this reference the assessor
ported that the machinery was the ordinary
mill machinery, part or Whlch is so IN
corporated with the building that it might
be- If removed valueless, except as old ma
terial; that the interior Of the building is
cut and partitiOned to accommodate the
machinery, parts of which are so attached
to each other that they make practically
continuous machine, extending from the
first to the third floor of the mill. The ma
chinery might be removed from the build
ing without causing any further damage
thereto than the necessity for interior re-
pairs.
Status Defined.
"In the absence of statutory direction
otherwise" says Mr.. Duvall, II am of the
opinion that mill machinery, such as is in
dictated, is taxable as real estate. This
seems to be the view OF Judge Cooley, who
states, in his Taxation that it has been
held that in the assessment of mills. the
machinery contained therein should be in,
cluded, even though it was personally by
common law rules and the owner nom
resident
The corporation counsel inclosed memo
randum of authorities wherein machinery
had been held to be portion of the realty.
The Washington Fertilizer Company dur
ing the past fiscal year has collected, ac-
cording to the report of Warner Stutler,
superintendent of street cleaning, 4S1 tons
and 29O pounds of fish offal. He recently
asked the Commissioners to have the cor
poration counsel state whether such ma
terial was garbage within the meaning Of
that term as used in the contract for the
collection and disposal of garbage and dead
animals. The opinion was desired to be
considered in the final settlement with the
fertilizer company at the end Of the present
fiscal year This offal has been collected
from the fish wharf. After quoting from
several standard and law dictionaries, Mr..
Duvall states: TT seems to me that fish
offal is garbage within the definition Of
the specifications of the photographers