Weekly journal-miner., 1910-02-02

pdny, dppeHee.
 The case was argued for the appell- ant by former Attorney General E. s. Clark and Colonel Pickett, and for the appellee by E. E. Ellinwood.
 The history of this litigation is as follows, or rather the history of the phase of it now before the court:
 In 1901 the county assessor of Co., chise county assessed all the property of the mining company at $36S, ,139. This amount included sixty mines and mining claims, all patented, aggre- gating 636 acres. They were put in at s an acre. The other property consisted of real estate and personal 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, slight ly changed these figures. The mines were raised to s3,26O,OOO; the stocks of merchandise were increased by about 800 per cent and in other respects the board indicated that the assessor had been rather amiss.
 On this latter assessment at the rate fixed by the board for county purposes and the rate fixed by the territorial board for territorial pur- poses, the tax of the company amounted to something more than $125,000. The company refused to pay it, but rendered 14,133.12, whicn would have been the tax on the first assessment. In the meantime the com pany had brought suit against the county, asking for an injunction to prevent it from trying to collect on the raised assessment. The restrain ing order was granted and in March, under some agreement the company made another payment which reduced the amount of the delinquent taxes to little more than $99,000. By Janu- ary l, 1904, the delinquent fees and interest had increased the amount of the delinquency to $115,7 ,7OO.79. 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, but the company paid $5,O0O 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 begun.
 The company demurred to the com plaint in sixteen special demurrers in all of which it was denied that the property had been properly as- sessed in the first place; the de- scriptions were said to be so made quate that it would be impossible to establish a lien on any particular piece of property for the taxes.
 It was further contended that the raise had been discriminatory; that the general practice had been to as- sess mining claims and mines at S5 an acre, and that elsewhere, even in Cochise county, that practice had been followed that year.
 The fact was mentioned that the owners of the mining property were nOn-residents' in that the company had been incorporated under the laws of New York. This paved the way for a recitation of that provision of the organic act which requires that nonresident owners shall be treated as we'll as residents.
 The action of the territorial board in recognizing the action of the eoun- ty board was declared to be in eontravention of the Fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provides that all persons shall enjoy the same protection as to life and liberty and property. Such protection it was de- clared, had been denied the defend ant by the territorial authorities.
 The fact of the former restraining order was recited, and it was pointed out that the defendants had complied with the affixed conditions as to the additional amount of taxes that should be paid.
 In rendering judgment, Judge Doan dealt only with the contention of the' defense that the original assessment had been improper, in that the property had been so indefinitely de- scribed that any raise by the board of equalization could not have been intelligently made. That was sus- tained. The court also held that though the action was nominaIly against the Copper Queen Consoli- dated Mining company, it was really an action in rem, against the prop erty itself, that is, against the var