Cowell v. Doub

Appeal from the Seventh District, County of Marin.

This was a suit in equity brought to enjoin the collection of State and County tax assessed upon the property of the plaintiffs, in the County of Marin.

This bill was originally filed in December, 1857, and set out in detail many irregularities in the levy, assessment and equalization of the tax. To this bill defendant demurred; the Court sustained the demurrer, and gave the plaintiffs leave to amend. Between the time of filing the original bill and the decision of the Court upon the demurrer, the Legislature passed an Act extending the time for the collection of the tax. This law, passed February 1st, 1858, confirmed the assessment roll in the hands of the Collector, and provides that the Board of Equalization shall again meet on the third Monday in February, 1858, and continue in session from day to day for four days ; that notice of the meeting of the Board should be given, by posting, in three public places in the county, and by publication in the San Francisco Herald, at least ten days before the meeting of the Board, and that all persons dissatisfied might appear before the Board and have their list corrected, etc. The amended bill sets out facts showing that the law of the first of February, 1858, was not complied with, but this is traversed by the answer. The defendant relies on the law of 1858 as curing any defects in the original levy, assessment, etc. The notice was published in the Herald on the sixth day of February, 1858, and the third Monday fell on the fifteenth of the month. It is alleged that this notice was not in time. Defendant had judgment, and plaintiffs appealed.