Case Name: STATE v. N. HARRISON
Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
Jurisdiction: North Carolina
Decision Date: 1900-04-03
Citations: 126 N.C. 1049
Docket Number: 
Parties: STATE v. N. HARRISON.
Judges: 
Reporter: North Carolina Reports
Volume: 126
Pages: 1049–1050

Head Matter:
STATE v. N. HARRISON.
(Decided April 3, 1900.)
Failure to List for Taxation, Act 1899, Chapter 15, Sections 15 and 28 — Misdemeanor—Justice’s Jurisdiction.
Sections 15 and 28, of the Revenue Act of 1899, chap. 15, making the failure to list polls and property for taxation a misdemeanor, are to be construed together, and being punishable by fine not more than $50, or imprisonment not more than thirty days, fix the jurisdiction in the court of a Justice of the Peace.
INDICTMENT for failure to list poll and property for taxation, tried before Timberlahe, J., at February Term, 1900, of Ikedell Superior Court.
The defendant moved to quash the bill for want of jurisdiction. Motion allowed. State appealed.
Attorney-General, for the State.
Messrs. L. C. Caldwell, and W. D. Turner, for defendant.

Opinion:
Montgomery, J.
The defendant, a resident of States-ville, was indicted in the Superior Court of Iredell County for wilfully and unlawfully failing to list for taxation all of his personal property in Statesville Township, as he was required to do by sec. 15, of chap. 15, of the Laws 1899. In that section, not only are the pains of perjury denounced against those who may be guilty of making false returns of their taxes, but it is also therein declared that "any person, corporation or firm, who fails to list the poll taxes and property taxes required of them by law, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." On the trial the defendant moved to quash the bill of indictment upon the ground that the Court did not have jurisdiction of the offense. Tbe motion was allowed, and the Solicitor appealed on behalf of the State. If there was nothing else in the Act of 1899 (chap. 15), concerning the criminal act on the part of one who refuses to properly list his taxes, besides what is contained in sec. 15, of the Act, the Superior Court would have had jurisdiction. But in sec. 28, of the same act, it is declared that "all persons who are liable for poll tax and shall wilfully fail to give'themselves in, and all persons who own property and wilfully fail to list it within the time allowed before the list-taker or Board of Commissioners, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be fined not more than $50, or imprisoned not more than thirty days." The two sections of the act are not inconsistent, and they must be construed together. They both make the failure to list taxes a misdemeanor, and the last section fixes the jurisdiction in the court of a Justice of the Peace — the punishment prescribed being a fine of not more than $50, or imprisonment not more than thirty days.
Affirmed.