Court Opinion

ID: 9808530
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:40:58.428921+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:14:40.035017
License: Public Domain

Faircloth, 0. J.,
dissenting: Facts: The charter of the city of Wilmington, Private Acts 1858-9, Chapter 198, Section 3, allowing taxes to be laid, provides that “No sale of land for any taxes shall be made sooner than three months after such taxes have been laid or imposed, or later than three years thereafter. The Act *393of 1895, Chapter 182, Section 1, provides “for the enforcement and collection of all claims in favor of said State, county and city for delinquent taxes against any person or property, whose names appear delinquent on the tax books or list of said city or county.”
An action had been commenced against the defendant under said Act for delinquent taxes, and was pending when the Act of 1897, Chapter 517, repealed said Act of 1895, Chapter 182, without any limitation or reservation of rights. So, it is this way : The remedy for collecting delinquent taxes was lost by the lapse of time, when the Act of 1895 restored the remedy for collecting all delinquent taxes, and before they were collected or any judgment for them had been rendered, the Act of 1897 repealed unconditionally the Act of 1895.
The Code, Section 3764, is in these words : “The repeal of a statute shall not affect any action brought before the repeal, for any forfeitures incurred, or for the recovery of any rights accruing under said statute. ”
The Act of 1895, by its terms, “looked backward” very far, in the language of Edward Bellamy, but assuming that the State in its sovereignty could authorize the collection of delinquent -taxes to any period, I assume that the State also could withdraw its authority to collect taxes, which had become .uncollectable by lapse of time, provided it did not violate any provision of the organic law or interfere with any vested rights, which had vested in the meantime. Between the Acts of 1895 and 1897, I do not see any accrued rights between the plaintiff and defendant. Their relations remained as before. No contract was made, no obligations assumed by defendant, and no consideration was paid by plaintiff for the right to enforce its claim The plaintiff only acquired the privilege of collecting under the Act of 1895, *394which the Legislature extended to it, which the State could withdraw, as it did by the Act of 1897, without infringing on any vested right. The plaintiff had only the hope of collecting that which it had lost by its own laches in former years, and was trying to do so when the Assembly changed its mind in reference to these back taxes. I do not look into the equity of the matter in such a case. That is the province of the Legislature in enacting and repealing Acts in these matters of taxation. I feel bound to confine myself to the will of the Legislature plainly expressed. That body did not undertake to give a new cause of action by the Act of 1895. The plaintiff’s cause of action was the non-payment of the taxes found on the tax list, and its remedy was under the Act of 1895, until it was repealed by the changed will of the Legislature in 1897.
In Wilson v. Jenkins, 72 N. C., 5, Pearson, C. J., in considering the effect of repealing an Act whilst an action was pending on the subject, said : “We are unable to see any principle upon which that circumstance can make a difference. He acquired no right of property, nor did he ever acquire a lien by the pending of his action to any money in the treasury. He had not changed his condition.or surrendered any right. All that he had complained of is that the people have seen proper to amend the Constitution, and in accordance thereto the General Assembly has repealed the Act of 1868, undei' which he had hoped to have his coupon satisfied.”
The plaintiff, however, falls back on The Code, Section 37 64, cited above. That refers to any rights accruing under such statute. No right accrued under the Act of 1895. It was only the remedy, given and taken away before he had acquired any lien on anything. It was a *395disappointed expectation, taken away by the will of the Legislature. This opinion applies to all the appeals in which no judgment was entered before the repealing Act of 189T.