Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/239/14/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:30:57+00:00

Document:
What the duty of a county officer is under the law of the which he is an instrument is a local question and this Court has no jurisdiction under § 237, Judicial Code, to review the judgment of the state court.
A county officer has no personal interest in a litigation brought to compel him to apply public moneys in his hands in accordance with the state law, and he cannot defend such a suit on the ground that the statute is unconstitutional as depriving him as an individual or as a taxpayer of his property without due process of law or denying him the equal protection of the law.
Municipalities of the state are creatures of the state, and the power of the state thereover is very broad, and may be exercised in many ways affecting the property of, and giving rise to inequalities between, municipalities without encountering the due process and equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The statute of Kansas requiring counties to reimburse municipalities of the first class, but not of other classes, for rebates allowed for prompt payment of taxes is not unconstitutional under the due process or equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Writ of error to review 90 Kan. 846 dismissed.
The facts, which involve the jurisdiction of this Court under § 237, Judicial Code, to review a judgment of the state court in a case involving the rights and duties of a county officer, are stated in the opinion.
"The question in dispute concerns the disposition of the penalties imposed by law for delinquency in the payment of taxes levied by and for the city. In substance it is this: is the county required to reimburse a city of the first class for the amount by which the taxes collected for the city are reduced by rebates granted for prompt payment, and at the same time to pay over to the city the amount collected as penalties for delay in the payment of taxes levied by the city, while in the case of taxes levied by cities of the second and third classes, and by townships and school districts, the rebates are charged to the county and the penalties credited to it?"
statutes so construed deprive taxpayers of the county who reside outside of cities of the first class of property without due process of law, and deny them the equal protection of the law.
Plaintiff in error is not impleaded as a taxpayer, nor does he defend as such. He is sued as a county officer, and defends by virtue of the exercise of his functions as a county officer. In other words, he defends by virtue of laws of which he is an instrument. Constituted by the laws of the state, he yet attempts to resist one of its laws. Whether he may do so is purely a local question. Smith v. Indiana, 191 U. S. 138. He certainly has no personal interest in the litigation. Braxton County Court v. West Virginia, 208 U. S. 192; McCandless v. Pratt, 211 U. S. 437; Marshall v. Dye, 231 U. S. 250.
"counties, cities, and towns exist only for the convenient administration of the government. Such organizations are instruments of the state, created to carry out its will."

References: § 237
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