Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/190/412/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 16:16:30+00:00

Document:
2. Proceedings before a board of equalization are quasi-judicial, and if an order made by it is within its jurisdiction, it is not void and cannot be resisted in an action at law; nor can overvaluation be made a ground of defense at law. The action of the tax officers, being in the nature of a judgment, must be yielded to until set aside. And this can only be done in a direct proceeding.
"And be it further enacted, That before any telegraph company shall exercise any of the powers or privileges conferred by this act, such company shall file their written acceptance with the Postmaster General of the restrictions and obligations required by this act."
In Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Massachusetts, 125 U. S. 530, the effect of the Act of July, 1866, upon the power of the state to tax the property of telegraph companies was considered. The laws of Massachusetts imposed a tax upon the Western Union Telegraph Company on account of the property owned and used by it within that state, the value of which was ascertained by comparing the length of its lines within the state with the length of its entire lines. The tax was sustained. The Act of July, 1866, was urged against the tax as it is urged here.
The statute of Massachusetts came up again for consideration in Massachusetts v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 141 U. S. 40, and the principles announced in Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Massachusetts, supra, were affirmed and followed. See also Ratterman v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 127 U. S. 411; Leloup v. Port of Mobile, 127 U. S. 640.
But it is contended that the method of assessment followed in those cases was sustained because they were prescribed by the legislature, and that, in the case at bar, the method adopted was not prescribed or authorized by the laws of Missouri. The answer is obvious. What the laws of Missouri authorized was competent for the Supreme Court of Missouri to decide, and it decided that the order of the board of equalization was legal under the Constitution and statutes of the state. The decision, constituting as it does an interpretation of the Constitution and laws of the state, is not open to dispute here. If it were, it would seem incontestable that the state could either prescribe the method or confer upon its taxing officers the power to adopt a suitable one. And there is nothing in the Adams Express Company cases, 166 U. S. 171, 166 U. S. 225, to the contrary.
within the jurisdiction of the defendant. Still, the proceeding being quasi-judicial and the subject matter within the jurisdiction of the officers who conducted it, the result reached is so far conclusive that the legality of it cannot be questioned in an action at law to recover back the one-half of the tax as illegal."
And we think overvaluation of property cannot be a ground of defense at law. In other words, the action of the tax officers, being in the nature of a judgment, must be yielded to until set aside. This can only be done in a direct proceeding. The property owner is in effect a plaintiff, and the condition of relief against the enforcement of the quasi-judicial order, which he attacks, is a tender of payment of the taxes that he ought to pay. And this condition would still be upon him if he set up overvaluation as an equitable defense to an action brought against him. Los Angeles v. Ballerino, 99 Cal. 594, 597. This certainly would be so in Missouri, under the doctrine expressed by the supreme court of the state in the case at bar.

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