The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-04-20


to list and put bis own value on
all shares of stock held 10y him in
domestic corporations and in
National Banks located in Mary
land. In fact neither the share.
holder nor the city has any right
in the world to put any value
whatever upon a single share of
such stock. The duty to value all
such shares is imposed upon the
State Tax Commissioner; and is
contided to no one else; and the
president of each corporation and
bank is required to furnish To the
city a list of the stockholders who
reside in the city and a statement
of the number of shares held by
them respectively. The city as
SCISSORS and the city authorities
have no right to put any valuation
on such shares. JAS. Clark Co,
vs. Cumberland, 80 Md. 1861. OF
course therefore, they have no
power to require the shareholder
to list or to value such shares.
Now item (h) requires the citizen
to list and value his implements
of trade or business. even though
by Section of Article 81 of the
Code the working tools of me
chanicS or artisans, moved or
worked exclusively 10y hand. are
exempt from taxation.
But let us go one step farther.
The Charter nowhere gives to the
Board of Aldermen the power to
authorize assessors to administer
an oath; aud if the power is not
found in the Charter it does not
exist; and if it does not exist no
person can be compelled to sub
scribe to an oath which the mu-
nicipal Off have no legal right
to administer. 1t will not do to
say that the power to administer
an oath is necessarily involved in
the power to value and assess;
and twill not do to SaythiS, because
the two things are essentially dis
similar. If the one power is in
clu1ed in the other under the City
Charter, then the same thing was
true as respects the general assess
ment law of 1896, and consequent
" there would have been no Oc-
caSiun for the Legislature TO make
the minute prov .Si0nS in that en-
actment whereby the State aud
county assessors were, IN cypress
terms, empowered to administer
Oaths and whereby false swearing
was made perjury, (See Act 1896
Chapter 12O, Sections ia and
1867. The authority of the city
to make new assessment is de
rived from Section 245. Chapter
295 of the Acts of Assembly of
1904, which permits assessors to
he appointed "tO make re-valu,
alton of all the real and personal
property within the taxable limits
of FREDERICK; and under Section
1913 of Article IL of the Code of
Public Local Laws of 1888 which
provided that the city may make
"a new assessment of all real and
personal property therein as often
as it may be deemed necessary.
This last cited provision is taken
from Section 10 OF Chapter "A of
the Acts Of Assembly of 1916. In
nett her of those enactmentS can
the corporation officers show, SIN
the WOrdS Of the grant," as Judge
Cooley puts 1t, "A warrant or au
thority Tor the administration by
the assessors of an oath to the
property owner. Bear III mind
that the rule of construction is,
that such enactmentS must he in
terpreted with StrictneSs, and,
therefore, to doubt the existence
OF power is to deny it. Could
any one be indicted by the grand
jury for perjury if he swore false
~ when put upon his oath by a
City Assessor! Where is the stat
ute which so declares? And if there
is no such statute where does the
municipality get the power 10 de-
ella false swearing to be perjury?
If it has not the power to exact an
oath under the general terms
above quoted it would seem to fol-
low that it has not the correlated
power to declare that false swear
ing, under snch an oath. would be
perjury, and it obviously would
not be perjury under Section 356
of Article 81 Of the Code. The
ordinance which prescribes the
oath is simply invalid in that par.
ticular.
Another difficulty stands ont
most prominently, and it is this:
'By the Act Of 1904 aboye al
luded to it is declared in a pro
UiSO. that the assessment of all
Sotcks, bonds, evidences of debts.
etc, shall be made IN accordance
aCjh the existing General Laws
of the State of Maryland relating
to revenues and taxes" Now, a
proviSo in a statute is a limita-
ton or execution to an authority