Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1916-08-10
'HALTS new ASSESSMENT
Frederick County Court Holds
Authorizing Act To Be
Unconstitutional.
Assembly Exceeded Power.

(trOm BalClmOre Dull.
Frederick, Md, Aug S.-The act
the Maryland Assembly delegating IN
power for a reassessment in Maryland
on which the State Tax Commission has
ed its action for a Statewide reassess
ment, was declared unconstitutional thi
afternoon in an opinion handed down b.
the Frederick County Circuit Court, over
ruling the demurrer to the bill of com
plant filed on July 10 by David Lowen
stein and Charles Wertheimer, Frederick
merchants, against the State Tax Com
mission, Afford w. Gaver, supervisor o
assessments, and the Board of Count.
Commissioners.
The defendants have Is days in which
to file an answer to the bill of complaint
The Tax Commission, it is stated, vii
take the case to the Court of Appeals.
The contention of the complainant
that the act was invalid because the pro
posed reassessment did not apply equally
thruout the State, was overruled. The
contention that Baltimore city was not
included in the reassessment plan was
referred to by the court
The court explained that there are sep
arate enactments by which property in
Baltimore city is subjected to a continu-
ing process of revision in order that it
may be assessed for state and municipal
taxes according to its real value.
"If the Legislature, says the court
in its opinion, was convinced that this
standard has been uniformly observed in
the assessment of Baltimore city proper
ty, but that lower measure of taxable
value has been applied elsewhere in the
State, it was not, in our opinion, constl-
tutionaly necessary to subject the city
to the expense of supertiuous reassess-
ment merely because the county valua-
ton may need readjustment. y
The court was unanimous in its opinion
it being signed by Chief Judge Hammond
Urner and Associate Judges Glenn II.
Worthington and Edward c. Peters.
The litigation in Frederick county has
attracted Statewide attention. Officials
of several counties have held up action
on the orders of the State Tax Commits
sion until decision had been reached in
the Frederick county case.
Former Senator Edward M. Hammond
represented the State Tax Commission
during the arguments on the demurrer.
Leo Weinberg represented the local mer-
chants
1.-THE question Of most serious concern
in the CASE" says the Court in its opln-
ion, 'arises from the fact that the Leg
islature, by the Act of 1916, has sought
to delegate to the State Tax Commission
the whole duty of formulating a uniform
plan of assessment This is duty which
the people imposed upon the Legislature.
The recent amendment to the Constitu-
ton declares that the General Assembly
shall by uniform rules provide for the
separate assessment and classification
therein directed.
at is the plain purpose of the amend
ment that the land and the improve
ments thereon shall be separately assess
ed, and that improvements and personal
property shall be classified according to
uniform rules which the Legislature shall
prescribe. The mandate of the people
to that effect, as conveyed by the Con-
stitutional amendment which they adopt
ed, is clear and unqualified. 1t creates a
duty which it makes expressly Legislative
in its character and which is, therefore,
not capable of being delegated. 1t afr-
matively charges the General Assembly
itself to establish the uniform rules by
which assessments for taxation purpose
shall be conducted
1.-THE reassessment which the bill seeks
to have restrained has been ordered by
the State Tax Commission in pursuance
of statute which lays down no rules to
guide the assessors in making the sepa-
rate assessments and classification con-
templated by the constitutional amend
ment, but commits that fundamental duty
to an agency to which the amendment
does not refer. In our judgment, this
attempted delegation of power and duty
by the Legislature is contrary to the pur-
pose and limitations of the Constitution
as amended and therefore must be held
invalid
I'm this instance the uniform plan of
assessment which the State Tax Commits
sion has been directed to make as the
basis of the classification and separate
assessments which the amended provis-
ion of the Constitution requires, cannot
be made comformably to the organic law
as adopted by the people, because that
duty can only be validity performed by
the Legislature, to whose judgment and
action it was affirmatively and exclusive
ly committed. The question in this case
is not simply whether general and un
qualified power vested in the Genera
Assembly can ordinarily be delegated by
that body to governmental agency Of
its own creation, but whether a specific
duty, which the Legislature is expressly
required by the Constitution to discharge
in the process of exercising one of the
functions of the States sovereignty, cal
be validly transferred by legislative &C
ton to separate and subordinate au
thority. We have been unable to avoit
the conclusion that this question must b'
answered in the negative.
1.-THE act of 1916 must therefore b
treated as nullity because it undertake.