Court Opinion

ID: 8858035
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 17:37:11.531291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:05:43.722017
License: Public Domain

THAYER, Circuit Judge.
I concur in the view that a purchaser of the bonds in suit was entitled to rely on the abstract of the assessment which was made by the county clerk, and certified to the auditor of the state of Nebraska, for the following reasons: The act under which the assessment was made (Laws Neb. 1879, p. 276, §§ 52, 54, 65) did not require the precinct assessors to state the aggregate value of property, real and personal, found in their respective precincts; and a person who consulted the precinct assessment books after they had been returned to the county clerk could not ascertain therefrom the aggregate valuation of all property in the county, except by a careful examination and computation. Besides, the board of equalization was authorized to make changes in the assessments after the precinct assessment books had been returned to the county clerk (Id. § 70); and no provision of the act, so far as I am able to discover, made it the duty of the board to note the changes thus made on the precinct assessment books. The act, however, did require the clerk to make an abstract of the assessment, showing the total assessed valuation of all property, real and personal, which abstract was to be made and certified to the auditor after the board of equalization had discharged its functions, and had made such alterations in the va*733rious precinct assessments as it deemed proper. The act further directed that “the values to be given in said abstract shall be the valuations assessed by the assessor, and equalized and corrected as hereinbefore provided.” Id. § 72. Moreover, the special finding of facts which was made by the trial court shows that the levy of taxes for the year 1879, for state and county purposes, was made upon the basis of the abstract which was made by the county clerk, showing a total assessed valuation of $326,768. Under these circumstances, the abstract of the assessment which was certified by the county clerk to the auditor of the state would seem to have been the only authentic public record showing the total assessed valuation, and upon that record a purchaser of the bonds in suit was entitled to rely. I also concur in the further views expressed in the opinion in chief.