Case Name: Newburyport Turnpike Corporation versus John Upton and Others
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1815-11
Citations: 11 Tyng 575
Docket Number: 
Parties: Newburyport Turnpike Corporation versus John Upton and Others.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 12
Pages: 497–497

Head Matter:
Newburyport Turnpike Corporation versus John Upton and Others.
Assessors may lawfully set a tax against the non-resident owners of real estate, in the actual occupation of tenants at will.
This was an action of trespass against the defendants for taking and carrying away certain chattels of the plaintiffs’.
At the trial, which was had upon the general issue, before Jackson, J., at the sittings here after the last November term, a verdict was taken for the plaintiffs, subject to the opinion of the Court upon the report of the judge, and upon certain facts agreed by the parties.
The defendants, being assessors for the district of Lynnjield, in this county, for the year 1813, duly elected and sworn, assessed the plaintiffs for certain real estates owned by them within the said district, the sum of $ 48.22. The said tax being demanded and unpaid, the collector of taxes for said district, in pursuance of his warrant, seized, advertised, and sold the several articles mentioned in the declaration to pay and satisfy the same. The estates, upon which the said tax was assessed, were in the actual occupation of certain tenants at will.
If, upon the facts so reported and agreed, the Court should be of opinion that the -said assessment was illegal, judgment was to be rendered for the plaintiffs upon the verdict; otherwise, they were to become nonsuit, and the defendants to recover their costs.
Mosely, for the plaintiffs.
W. Prescott, for the defendants.

Opinion:
* Per Curiam.
The tax act authorizes the taxes to be [*576] assessed upon the owners of real estate, whether such owners reside in the same town or district, or not. Or the assessors may set the taxes to the occupants. Where the occupants, as in the case at bar, are merely tenants at will, it is certainly more convenient that the owners should be charged directly with the tax.
Plaintiffs nonsuit.