Case Name: Samuel Granger versus Nathan Parsons et al.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1824-09
Citations: 2 Pick. 392
Docket Number: 
Parties: Samuel Granger versus Nathan Parsons et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 19
Pages: 417–418

Head Matter:
Samuel Granger versus Nathan Parsons et al.
An assessment of taxes by assessors of a parish, upon a valuation made by assessor of a town, is illegal.
This was an action of trespass brought by Granger, whose property had been taken for the payment of a tax assessed against him in December, 1822, by the defendants, as assessors of the Middle Parish of Granville. The plaintiff recovered a verdict in the Court of Common Pleas, and the case now came up on a bill of exceptions filed by the defendants.
It appeared that the defendants did not make a list and valuation themselves of each individual’s taxable property in the parish, but that they assessed the tax in question according to a list and valuation made by the assessors of the town, in the same December, for the purpose of assessing the town taxes; and the case turned on the legality of an assessment so made by the defendants.
Boise, for the defendants,
contended that they had complied substantially with St. 1785, c. 50, § 8, 9 ; that where a parish lies in two towns, the parish assessor must make a separate list and valuation, out where it lies wholly in one town, as in the present instance, it would be a work of su pererrogation for them to go over the same ground which the assessors of the town had gone over a few days before. In Thurston v. Little, 3 Mass. R. 433, this statute has received a construction, which has been acted on ever since. The Court there say of a list and valuation made by the assessors of the town, “a reference to which latter by the parish assessors might perhaps have been sufficient.”
Bates and Knox for the plaintiff.
See Somes v. Skinner, 3 Pick. 62 ; Holyoke v. Haskins, 9 Pick, 264, Jackson an Real Actions, 296.

Opinion:
Putnam J.,
in giving the opinion of the Court, said, in substance, that by St. 1785, c. 50, § 9, the assessors of a parish are required to notify the inhabitants to bring in lists of their polls and estates, and by § 8, parish taxes are to be assessed according to the rules prescribed in the latest annual tax act, and the assessors are to lodge copies of the assessment and valuation in the clerk's office of the place where the same are made, or in their own office. The defendants say they did what was equivalent to this ; that they had a list and valuation made by the assessors of the town, and that it was duly filed by those assessors in the town clerk's office ; that the parish taxes were assessed according to such valuation ; that a duplicate of the assessment was filed in the parish clerk's office ; and that this mode of proceeding is usual with parishes. A usage adverse to a law cannot repeal it. The provisions in the 9th section of the statute are not matter of form, but such as must be complied with substantially It may be that parish assessors may estimate parish estates better than town assessors, or the inhabitants may be willing to give in lists of their estates to parish assessors, where they have been doomed by those of the town. At any rate, the legislature have thought proper to require the assessors of parishes to make a valuation, and they cannot make a proper one by the opinion of other assessors.
The Court are all of opinion that the plaintiff's property has been taken illegally, and judgment must be entered according to the verdict.
But a school district tax may be assessed upon a valuation of. property taken in reference to the town taxes for the same year. Waldron v. Lee, b Pick. 330.