Case Name: PEOPLE v. SMITH
Court: Michigan Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1902-06-03
Citations: 131 Mich. 70
Docket Number: Docket No. 148
Parties: PEOPLE v. SMITH.
Judges: Hooker, C. J., Moore and Montgomery, JJ., concurred. Long, J., did not sit.
Reporter: Michigan Reports
Volume: 131
Pages: 70–71

Head Matter:
PEOPLE v. SMITH.
1. Criminal Law — Resisting Ofeioer — Collection of Taxes.
Where a village treasurer, by virtue of his tax roll and warrant, levied on personal property in the possession of the one against whom the tax was assessed, the levy was valid, and interference with such treasurer by a third person, claiming to own the property, was unlawful, and rendered such person guilty of the offense of resisting an officer.
2. Municipal Corporations — Organization—Collateral Attack.
In a prosecution for resisting a village treasurer in the execution of a tax warrant, the validity of the organization of the village cannot be attacked.
Exceptions before judgment from Benzie; Chittenden, J.
Submitted May 8, 1902.
(Docket No. 148.)
Decided June 3, 1902.
Mason Smith was convicted of resisting an officer.
Affirmed.
D. G. F. Warner, for appellant.
M. M. Larmonth, Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

Opinion:
Grant, J.
Respondent was convicted of resisting an officer. The treasurer of the village of Benzonia, in July, 1901, by virtue of his tax roll and warrant, levied upon certain personal property as the property of Otis Smith for a tax levied against him. While in the act of removing it, the respondent interfered, and resisted the officer. Two defenses were interposed:
1. That the property seized belonged to respondent, although in the possession of Otis Smith, and he offered to show ownership in himself.
2. The illegality of the organization of the village of Benzonia.
Both defenses were ruled out, and respondent was convicted.
Upon the first point counsel for respondent relies upon People v. Clements, 68 Mich. 655 (36 N. W. 792, 13 Am. St. Rep. 373). In that case a sheriff levied u'pon exempt property, and it was held that the debtor was not compelled to submit to a trespass without reasonable resistance. That case does not apply to property not exempt, and which is seized by virtue of a tax' warrant, and the officer has already seized and is in possession of the property. The treasurer in this case loaded the property, and was in the public highway in the act of removing it, when the repondent forcibly interfered. Under Sears v. Cottrell, 5 Mich. 251, the levy was lawful.
The village of Benzonia was organized by an act of the legislature in 1899. Its organization cannot now be collaterally attacked. Carleton v. People, 10 Mich. 250, 255; Coe v. Gregory, 53 Mich. 19 (18 N. W. 541).
Conviction affirmed.
Hooker, C. J., Moore and Montgomery, JJ., concurred. Long, J., did not sit.