Court Opinion

ID: 9825900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 14:16:46.53925+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:41:27.921734
License: Public Domain

Smith, J., (concurring). The majority say there was a total failure to extend on the tax book the 1926 taxes. The only taxes extended against the land were those due the Laconia Levee District and the Helena-Ferguson Road District. There was, as the majority say, “A total failure on the part of the county clerk to extend, in dollars and cents, in the columns in the tax books provided for that purpose, the amount of state taxes due on said property, the amount of county taxes, the amount of school district taxes, and the total of all taxes.” On these facts all must agree that the tax sale was void, and was not cured by the confirmation decree. The case of Mixon v. Bell, 190 Ark. 403, 82 S. W. (2d) 33, so expressly held. But the instant case does much more than to reaffirm the holding in the Mixon .case, supra. It is now held that, not only does the failure to extend the total amount of all taxes invalidate a sale beyond the power of a confirmation decree to cure, as was held in the Mixon case, with which holding I am in entire accord, but that the failure to extend and calculate separately the taxes due the state, county and the school district renders the sale invalid, and that there is no authority to collect any taxes unless these items are separately calculated and extended upon the tax books. ■ This holding is so far reaching, and will be so disastrous to the beneficiaries of the various taxes, that I am constrained to register my dissent. The majority opinion, in practical effect, makes the payment of current taxes optional, by relieving the taxpayer of any apprehension that the sale of his land for the non-payment of taxes will cause him to lose it, even though he fails to redeem it, after the sale, and permits the state to confirm the sale by a proper decree. I submit that the statutes of this state, and the opinions of this court cited by the majority, furnish no basis for that holding. It may be conceded that for many years it was the practice to so rule the tax books as to provide columns for the extension of the amounts due the various taxing agencies. This operated to increase the fees and emoluments of the county clerks in many counties where, even' with these fees, those officers were poorly paid; but the majority opinion cites no law which required that this should be done. This custom was within the knowledge of Judge Battle when he wrote the opinion in Sawyer v. Wilson, 81 Ark. 319, 99 S. W. 389, in which he said there was no law prohibiting the blending of all taxes in the delinquent list of lands as published for sale. He made this statement upon the authority of the case of Scott v. Watkins, 22 Ark. 556, from which he quoted and where it had been said: “The statute does not require the advertisement to state the sum of the state and county taxes severally, although it is perhaps customary to do so.” I submit it is the bolding’ of this case that mere custom cannot add to the requirements of the statute. If it is essential to a valid sale that the taxes be separately calculated and extended upon the tax books, which but few, if any taxpayers, would ever see, it would be equally essential that the landowner have this information in the notice of the sale of his land, and the Sawyer ease expressly holds that this is not essential to a valid sale. Now it is true that the argument was made in the case of Evans v. Dumas Stores, Inc., and Alphin v. Banks, cited, by the majority, that the tax sale would be void where there was no separate extension of the taxes .due the state, county, etc. The argument there made, that the sales there questioned were void, because those taxes had not. been separately calculated and extended upon the tax books, was met with the answer that this had in fact been done,' and if this had been done those sales could not be held invalid, even though the law imposed this requirement. It was not necessary, in either of those cases, to discuss or decide whether the law imposed this requirement. It was sufficient to say that the thing insisted upon had in fact been done. It was said, however, in the Alphin case, supra, in discussing this quotation that: “We do not find any statute which requires this to be done.” The majority say that. § 13758 of Pope’s Digest imposes this requirement. I do not so construe that section, and no case has been called to our attention which does. It was insisted, in our consultation, that such was the effect of Porter v. Ivy, 130 Ark. 329, 197 S. W. 697, cited as a note to that section, and as a note also to the corresponding § 10010, Crawford & Moses’ Digest. It is so obvious that this case does not support the majority opinion that it is not there cited. Lest someone else may entertain this misapprehension, I briefly review that case. It was there insisted that the county levying court had not authorized the extension of the state taxes, and that, lacking this authorization, the sale for taxes, including the state taxes, was void. The opinion by Chief Justice McCulloch points out the manner in which state taxes are levied, as distinguished from the levy of taxes for county and school purposes. The point which was there in issue, and which was decided by the court, was stated by Chief Justice McCulloch as follows: “In other words, the contention is, as we understand it, that the words, ‘county taxes,’ (which a local agency was required to levy) include all taxes to be imposed in the county for both state and county purposes.” In overruling that contention, it was said: “State taxes are levied by the Legislature, and the clerk of the county court is required by statute to extend upon the tax books the taxes levied for state purposes as certified by the Auditor of State.” In other words, it was the duty of the county clerk to extend the state taxes upon the tax books, although that action had not been directed by the levying court; but it was not held that this must be done by extending these taxes separately and apart from the other taxes. These taxes, were extended when they became, and were made, a part of the total taxes due on the land, for the particular year. That total must, of course, be stated to make a valid sale. The extension of taxes is not complete until that total has ‘been extended upon the tax books, but the state taxes were extended when they were included in the sum total of all the taxes due. The sale here under review is void because this was not done, and inasmuch as the extension was not completed by showing the total amount of taxes due, there was a defect which neither a confirmation under the Confirmation Act nor the provisions of act 142 of the Acts of 1935 could cure. The Mixon case so' holds, and was correct in so bolding; but it is a very great — and I think unwarranted — extension of that case to now hold that the items making up the total amount of taxes should be separately calculated and extended. Does § 13758 of Pope’s Digest require this to be done, as the majority have concluded? An analysis of that section will answer this question. Its requirements are that the county clerk shall (a) after receiving statements of the rates and sums of money to be levied for-state purposes from the Auditor of State, and (b) after receiving similar information from other officers and authorities empowered to determine rates and amounts to be levied for the other vai'ious purposes authorized by law, to then, forthwith, determine, from these statements, the sums to be levied on all the real property in his county, and to these amounts he is required to add the taxes of any previous year which have been omitted, and he is then required to compute the taxes upon the valuations of the personal property at the same rate employed in computing- the taxes upon the real estate. There are no other provisions in this section, and something-must be read into it — which does not there appear — if we are to impose the additional requirement that the county clerk shall separately compute and extend the taxes due each of these taxing agencies against each tract of land or against the total valuation of an owner’s personal property. In the case of Alphin v. Banks, supra, cited by the majority, it was pointed out that “The law requires that the books be uniform and be approved by the Tax Commission. Section 9880-, Crawford & Moses’ Digest.” The duties of the Tax Commission have been transferred to a department of the Arkansas Corporation Commission by act 165 of the Acts of 1937, p. 613. Section 9880, Crawford & Moses’ Digest, requires the Tax Commission to prepare and furnish the blanks and records to be used in the extension and collection of taxes in each county, and that no other records shall be used. These tax books are so ruled as to show all the items the statutes require. An examination of a sheet from one of these books shows that separate columns are not provided for the state and county taxes, as distinguished from other taxes, but that there is a column for the total amount of taxes. Tax books of this character appear to have been used since the passage of act 16 of the Special Session of 1933, p. 61, approved August 25, 1933, and the books now in use show only the total taxes, and not the separate items making up this total. It must, therefore, follow, from the majority opinion, that all sales for taxes thus extended are void, although no other irregularity attends the sale, and that the infirmity is one which a confirmation decree will not cure. The collector must, of course, account to each taxing agency for the taxes collected for its benefit, and that result is arrived at by adding the total of all valuations both of real estate and personal property upon which taxes were paid for the account of such • agency, and multiplying that total by the appropriate rate of taxation. It may be, as the majority say, that all taxpayers are not able to 'make these calculations; but the taxpayer may know what his total valuations are, both upon his real estate and his personal property, and he may know the sum total of all the rates of tax he is called upon to pay. If he wishes to verify the accuracy of his tax statement, his perplexity would not be diminished, nor would the labor of his calculations be reduced, by determining the tax due on his various valuations for each of the purposes, and adding them together, rather than by multiplying the valuation by the total amount of all the various rates. • There appears to be neither reason, nor requirement of law, for the separate extension of the various amounts of taxes on the tax books due each taxing agency, and to impose this unnecessary and useless requirement very greatly increases the cost incident to the collection of taxes, and will invalidate all tax sales which have been made for the past several years. I, therefore, dissent, and am authorized to say that Justice Mehaeey concurs in the views here expressed. McIIaNEy, J., (supplemental opinion). On further consideration on our own motion, we have reached the conclusion that our opinion, rendered herein on November 29, 1937, is incorrect in holding that the failure of the county clerk, in all instances, to extend in dollars and cents in the columns in the tax books provided for that purpose, the amount of the several taxes due the state and its various subdivisions and the total of all taxes, renders a tax sale based thereon void and not cured by subsequent confirmation. Section 9880 of Crawford & Moses’ Digest as amended by § 8 of act 172 of 1929, now digested as § 13648, Pope’s Digest, reads as follows: “The Arkansas Tax Commission shall prepare and furnish, at the proper time, to the county clerks in this state, copies for all lists, blanks and records to be used in the assessment, extension and collection of taxes, and the county clerk shall have all such lists, blanks and records made at the expense of the county; provided, this shall not apply to poll tax receipts; and provided further, no lists, blanks or records shall be used by any official in the assessment, extension or collection of taxes, except as shall have had the approval of said commission. “As soon after the passage and approval of this act as is practicable, and on or before the first day of January of each year thereafter, the county clerk shall furnish to the assessor all lists, blanks and records necessary for the assessment of all real and personal property for the year, same to be prepared by law provided unless otherwise directed by the Arkansas Tax Commission. ’ ’ We are of the opinion that this section confers authority on the Tax Commission to change the form of tax books so as to omit blank spaces for the extension in dollars and cents of the amounts due the state and its various subdivisions, such as counties, cities, towns and school districts, and that acting under this authority the Tax Commission has, for a number of years, approved forms of tax books which do omit such extensions. In view of this fact, the failure of the county clerk to make such extensions does not render a tax sale based thereon void. To this extent § 13758 of Pope’s Digest is amended by necessary implication. But in the case now before us, there was a failure, extend the total amount of taxes due, and this rendered not only to extend the various items, but a failure to the sale based thereon void, as it was not a complete assessment. In the respects herein mentioned the opinion heretofore rendered is modified. In all other respects it is approved, and the decree of the chancery court is not disturbed. Smith and Mehaeey, JJ., concur.