Court Opinion

ID: 3269037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 16:37:26.615687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:02:22.110137
License: Public Domain

I do not agree with the majority in holding that the complaint filed does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and in holding that the demurrer should be sustained.
The majority opinion cites State ex rel. Atty. General v. Anderson Tully Co., 168 Ark. 170, 53 S.W.2d 17. *Page 72 
the writer filed a dissenting opinion in the Anderson-Tully case which is reported on page 175 of 168 Ark. I shall not repeat what was said there with reference to act 281 of the Acts of 1931 being retroactive. Reference is made to the dissenting opinion there for a discussion of that question.
The complaint states: "All of the property set out in the original complaint, which includes the machinery and stocks of lumber therein mentioned, in both Mississippi and Phillips counties, and on which taxes are sought to be recovered herein, is now and has been through out the years 1927 to 1930, inclusive, and throughout the taxable periods for said years, in existence in the State of Arkansas. The percentage of value at which all property is required to be assessed for taxation in Mississippi and Phillips counties, and throughout the State of Arkansas, is, and has been throughout the period covered by the complaint, 50 per cent. of the true value thereof, said basis of assessment having been prescribed for each of said years involved herein by the Arkansas Tax Commission under the authority of the Constitution and statutes of the State of Arkansas."
It was further charged in the complaint that the amount set out in the original complaint constituted an assessment at only nine per cent. on the Phillips County property, and an assessment of only five per cent. on the Mississippi County property; that this constituted a gross underassessment of appellees' property. It was further stated that the lumber and machinery are extremely difficult to value on account of the large amount thereof, and that the fact that the taxing officers have not had access to the records relating thereto, said officials have been compelled to rely, and had actually relied in making the assessments aforesaid, on the representations of defendants as to the value of said properties. Said representations have not been fairly made to said taxing authorities.
There were other allegations in the complaint as to the underassessment, and appellees filed motion for the court to require the plaintiff to make the complaint more *Page 73 
definite and certain in certain particulars. The motion consisted of twenty typewritten pages and forty-seven separate paragraphs. Some of the paragraphs asked that plaintiff be required to state the names of the witnesses that filed the list for taxation, others to describe in particular the kinds of lumber and kinds of machinery, but some of the paragraphs asked that they be required to state the nature of the representations alleged to have been made by the corporate officials.
In response to this motion an amendment to the complaint was filed. One paragraph of the amendment states that both the assessments actually made and the amounts at which the property should have been assessed, being expressly stated for each of the years 1927-1930, and for the property at West Helena and Blytheville separately, and this paragraph also stated that under the Arkansas statutes, lumber, manufactured articles, and machinery are assessed jointly under the head of "machinery and manufactured articles."
The amendment to the complaint further stated that the nature of the representations made by the corporate officials and agents of the defendant corporations for the years 1927-1930 was delivering a sworn statement of the value of defendant's machinery and lumber to the tax assessors for each of said years, which sworn statement showed the value of said lumber and machinery for said respective years, to be the figures at which said property was actually assessed for said years respectively, and which are specifically set out in the plaintiff's original complaint. Said representations of value were so grossly inadequate as to shock the conscience and constitute a fraud on the State, the counties, and school districts in which said property is located; that other similar property in the counties named was assessed at 50 per cent. of its true value, and the assessments on defendant's property was approximately 5 per cent. in Mississippi County and 9 per cent. in Phillips County.
We have copied enough of the complaint, we think, to show that there were sufficient facts stated to constitute a cause of action  when the sufficiency of the *Page 74 
complaint is tested by general demurrer. The fact that appellees' property was assessed at from 5 per cent. to 9 per cent. of its value, and all other property in the two counties assessed at 50 per cent. of its value, is not a conclusion of law, but a statement of fact. If this is true, then the affidavit furnished the taxing authorities for the purpose of assessment was a statement of fact and not a conclusion of law. It is also stated as a fact that the affidavit and assessment constituted an actual fraud. These statements of fact may or may not be true. That could be determined however, only by the evidence.
We have frequently held that, in testing the sufficiency of a pleading by general demurrer, every reasonable intendment should be indulged to support it. Contrary to the common-law rule, under our Code every reasonable intendment and presumption is to be made in favor of a pleading, and a complaint will not be set aside on demurrer unless it be so fatally defective that, taking all the facts to be admitted, the court can say that they furnish no cause of action whatever. Wright v. Lake, 178 Ark. 1184, 13 S.W.2d 826; Ellis v. First National Bank, 163 Ark. 471, 260 S.W. 714. It should be held in mind that allegations of fact in a complaint must be accepted as true on demurrer. Parker v. Sims,185 Ark. 1111, 51 S.W.2d 517. Considering the statement of facts in the complaint as true and indulging every reasonable intendment as we must, we think the complaint states a cause of action.
"As in other cases, it is not sufficient to plead mere conclusions of law, but the facts constituting the fraud must be pleaded subject of course to the usual limitation that the evidence should not be set out; and if the facts are so set out that the adverse party is fairly apprised of what he is to meet, it is sufficient." 10 Standard Enc. of Proc., 53.
"If fraud has been alleged with sufficient particularity, we do not doubt that, whatever may be its final outcome, the case as made by the declaration discloses justiciable and actionable fraud. On the alleged insufficiency *Page 75 
of the declaration in point of particularity, we have but little to say. While the allegations of fraud in some respects are not as formal as may be desirable, we regard them as sufficient. It is true that the mere use of adjectives importing fraud or deceit cannot be permitted to supply the place of the essential facts constituting the fraud or deceit relied on. But an impracticable standard or particularity is no more required in allegations of fraud than in an indictment. Mere matter of evidence is not required to be stated. In the amended declaration all the facts constituting the fraud are, though somewhat informally, plainly alleged, and the defendant is fully advised of the case it is called on to meet." Rogers v. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co., 149 F. 1.
It is not necessary under our Code to plead the probative or evidential facts. It is sufficient if ultimate facts are alleged, which show the falsity of the representation.
The only question for the consideration and determination by the court is whether the facts alleged constitute a cause of action, and it is immaterial that the cause of action may be defectively stated if there are allegations of fact which constitute fraud. A statement of fact supported by the affidavit of the party that the value of the property is a certain amount, and a statement of fact that this is untrue, I think, is a sufficient statement to apprise the adverse party of what he is called on to meet. I therefore think the case should be reversed and remanded for trial.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice HUMPHREYS agrees with me in the views herein stated.