Arizona republican., 1909-11-03
THE BACK TAXES {
 OF THE COPPER QUEEN
THE FAMOUS CASE NOW IN sU
 PREME COURT.
The Appeal of the Territory From the Decision of Judge Doan.

The case of the Copper Queen Taxes of 1907 whose litigation has extended over a period of eight years | in various forms was brought to the | supreme court yesterday by the terri tory ex rel J. N. Gaines. collector for Cochise county. Judge Doan at the last term of court having given judgment for the Copper Queen Consolidated ! Mining company in the case brought by the territory to collect back taxes amounting to more than s120.000.
 In 1901 the county assessor of Co., chise county assessed all the property of the mining company at s36S.139. This amount included sixty mines and min ing claims, all patented, aggregating 636 acres. They were put in at s an acre. The other property consisted of real estate and personally property and stocks of merchandise at Bisbee and Naco.
 The supervisors of the county. sit ting as a board of equalization at the July meeting of that year slightly changed these figures. The mines were raised to s3.260.O00; the stocks of mer- chandise were increased by about 800 per cent and in other respects the board indicated that the assessor had been rather remiss.
 On this later assessment at the rate fixed by the board for county pur- poses and the rate fixed by the terri torial board for territorial purposes the tax of the company amounted to something more than s125.000. The company refused to pay it but tend cred s14.133.12 which would have been the tax on the first assessment In the meantime the company had brought suit against the county asking for an injunction to prevent it from trying to collect on the raised assessment. The restraining order was granted and in March under some agreement the com pany made another payment which re- duced the amount of the delinquent taxes to a little more than $99.00O. By January i, 1904 the delinquent fees and interest had. increased the amount of the delinquency to f215,7007s. About that time the company entered into some sort of a compromise with M. D. Scribner. the then collector. the nature of which is not disclosed by the docu- ments on file at the office of the sup reme court clerk but the company paid 5000 in addition to $661.44 the latter to cover costs and certain fees
 The matter was then allowed to rest until Collector Gaines. acting under the back tax law employed an attorney to collect all such long due taxes and then the present suit was begun
 The company demurred to the com plaint in sixteen special demurrers m all of which it was denied that the property had been properly assessed in the first place: the descriptions were said to be so inadequate that 1t would be imoossibIe to establish lien on any particular piece of property Tor the taxes.
 It was further contended that the raise had been discriminatory: that the general practice had been to assess mining claims and mines at $5 an acre and that elsewhere. even in Co., chise county that practice had been followed that year.
 Tn fact was mentioned that the oaner of the mining property were n-residents in that the company had been incorporated under the laws of New York This paved the way for recitation of that provision of the organic act which requires that non resident property owners shall be treat ed as well as residents. T
 The action of the territorial board in recognizing the action of the county board was declared to be in contraven-