Case Name: STATE ex rel. POSEY v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1904-06-06
Citations: 113 La. 925
Docket Number: No. 15,040
Parties: STATE ex rel. POSEY v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS.
Judges: 
Reporter: Louisiana Reports
Volume: 113
Pages: 925–931

Head Matter:
(37 South. 878.)
No. 15,040.
STATE ex rel. POSEY v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS.
(June 6, 1904.
On Rehearing, Jan. 4, 1905.)
APPEAL — DISMISSAL—JURISDICTIONAL AMOUNT —MANDAMUS—WHEN GRANTED-MINISTERIAL DUTY.
1. Appeal dismissed on suggestion that the amount in dispute is below the jurisdiction of the court.
On Rehearing.
2. The function of the writ of mandamus is to compel the performance of a plain ministerial duty. It is not the plain ministerial duty of the board of assessors to assess a tract of land as belonging to an individual, and as having a certain measurement and a certain boundary, when the title exhibited by him fails to show that he owns any property answering such description.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Appeal from Civil District Court, Pdrish of Orleans; Thomas C. W. Ellis, Judge.
Action by the state, on the relation of Lloyd Posey, against the board of assessors. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Benjamin Rice Forman, for appellant. Frank Bartlett Thomas, Asst. City Atty., for appellee City of New Orleans. Edward King Skinner, for appellees Board of Assessors.

Opinion:
PROVOSTY, J.
The matter involved in this suit is whether relator's property should be assessed as one continuous tract of land, or as property laid off into streets and squares. It is suggested by defendant and appellee that this court is without jurisdiction of the appeal, the matter involved not being one of those of which this court has special jurisdiction, and the amount involved being less than $2,000.
There is no allegation of value, and the assessment is not in record. The only data to be found in the record on which the court could base itself for determining value are the acts of sale by which relator and his author acquired. The property was acquired by relator in consideration of $300, and in part payment for certain valuable professional services rendered by relator to his vendors. This was in 1899. Relator's author acquired at auction in 1877 for $4, pay able on 12 months' credit.
Relator's counsel in his oral argument referred to an affidavit which he said had been filed in this court showing a value of over $2,000, but said affidavit is not to be found in tbe record, and nothing in the clerk's office shows that it was ever filed. The court must dismiss the appeal; but if in fact the affidavit referred to has been duly filed, an application for a rehearing will be favorably entertained.
Appeal dismissed.