Court Opinion

ID: 9640167
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:59:43.323844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:27.806170
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
It is my view that the question whether the Railway Company has a plain, speedy, and efficient remedy, either at law or equity, is shrouded in doubt.
In Board of Co. Commissioners v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 52 Colo. 609, 125 P. 528, 529, the court conceded that Section 281, ch. 142, Colo.Stat.Ann.1935, does not afford an adequate remedy in all cases founded upon an erroneous or illegal tax. It cited as an example of a case where the statute would not afford an adequate remedy Cummings v. Merchants’ National Bank, 101 U.S. 153, 25 L.Ed. 903, a case clearly analogous on the facts with the instant case. Section 281, supra, provides for a refund by the Board of County Commissioners. I seriously doubt that it contemplates a determination by the county commissioners of the amount of an excessive tax arising from a systematic, intentional, and arbitrary undervaluation of other species of property as in 'the instant case. I am inclined to think the statute only applies where the amount of the erroneous or illegal tax affirmatively appears on the face of the taxing records and does not contemplate a factual determination by the Board of County Commissioners such as the instant case would entail.
In Tallon v. Vindicator Consol. G. M. Co., 59 Colo. 316, 149 P. 108, the court held that a court of equity will interfere to restrain the collection of taxes, only when the tax is prima facie void, and in many cases has indicated a reluctance to grant equitable relief against the collection of a tax. Here, the tax is not illegal or void in a strict sense. The assessment upon which it is predicated is prima facie valid. It is only when through the showing of extrinsic facts of a systematic, intentional, and arbitrary undervaluation of other species of property, that the discriminatory and excessive features of the tax appear.
If the remedy in the state courts, both at law and in equity, is uncertain, then the Railway Company, notwithstanding the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. § 41, subdivision (1), is entitled to relief in a federal court. Mountain States Power Co. v. Public Service Comm, of Montana, 299 U.S. 167, 57 S.Ct. 168, 81 L.Ed. 99; Corporation Comm, of Oklahoma v. Cary, 296 U.S. 452, 56 S.Ct. 300, 80 L.Ed. 324; Cary v. Corporation Comm, of Oklahoma, D.C., 9 F.Supp. 709.
For the reasons indicated, I respectfully dissent.