People v. Niles

By the Court, Sanderson, J.: It is by law made the duty of every County Assessor, between the first Monday in March and the first Monday in August in each year, except as otherwise required by special enactment, to ascertain by diligent inquiry and examination, all property in his county, real and personal, subject to taxation, and also the names of all persons, corporations, associations, companies or firms, owning, claiming, or having the possession or control thereof, and, thereupon, to list and assess the same accordingly. It is also made his duty at the same time to ascertain from all such persons, corporations, associations, companies, and firms, what real and personal property, if any, they own, claim, or have the possession or control of, in any other county of the State, which they do not, of their personal knowledge, know has been already assessed in such other county for that year, and to require them to give a list thereof, which list shall particularly describe each tract of land and each city or town lot contained therein, so that the same may be found and known thereby; and all vessels, steamers, and other water craft; and all deposits of money and gold dust, unless the same shall have been included in the first list, which may be lawfully done. These latter lists, or one made from them, the Assessor is required to transmit to the Assessor of the proper county; that is to say, the county where the property is situated, in the sense of the statute, who is required to assess the property therein contained, unless he has already done so. (Statutes 1861, p. 419, Secs. 13-15.)

¡From these provisions the intent is clear to render all personal property taxable in the county in which it is situated, between the first Mondays in March and August, except money or gold dust, which may, at the option of the owner, be taxed in the county in which he resides; and it follows therefrom that personal property, except money and gold dust, for all the purposes of taxation, is to be considered like [287]real estate, as having a situs of its own, independent of the domicil of its owner.

By thus assigning to personal property a situs for the purposes of taxation, we do not consider, however, that it was intended to authorize the listing or taxing out of the owner’s county of such personal property as might casually, in the usual and ordinary course of the owner’s business, be found in such county on the first Monday in March, or be subsequently, in like manner, brought into it between that day and the first Monday in August. If A. resides at Placerville, in El Dorado County, and is engaged in teaming between that place and Folsom, in the County of Sacramento, and, in the course of his business, chances to be with his team at Folsom, discharging or taking freight, on the first Monday in March, or any subsequent day between that day and the first Monday in August, the situs of his team is not, in the sense of the statute, in Sacramento County, but in El Dorado County. If A., residing in Tolo County, drives his carriage into Sacramento County, or has it driven there by his coachman, on the first Monday in March, or any subsequent day between that day and the first Monday in August, it does not thereupon become the duty of the Assessor of Sacramento County to list and assess it as personal property “ in his county.” It is in his county, it is true, but it is not so in the sense of the statute—its situs, for the purposes of taxation, is in Tolo County.-