Town of Dixon v. Mayes

Belcher, C. C. The town of Dixon was regularly incorporated, with fixed and defined boundaries, by an act of the legislature approved March 30, 1878 (Stats. 1877-78, p. 712). It was afterward reorganized with the same boundaries as a municipal corporation of the sixth class, under the provisions of an act of the legislature entitled “An act to provide for the organization, incorporation, and government of municipal corporations,” approved March 13,1883 (Stats. 1883, p. 93).

The defendant Mayes owned certain real property situate within the corporate limits of the town, and among other pieces a strip of land four hundred feet wide and seventy-three rods long, which was a part of an adjoining farm owned by him. In 1884 all his real and personal property within the corporate limits was assessed for municipal purposes, and a tax of fifty cents on the one hundred dollars was levied thereon. He refused to pay the tax, and this action was brought to recover it.

Two points were made by the defendant in the court below, and are made here: 1. That the strip of land referred to was used solely for farming purposes, and so was not subject to municipal taxation; and 2. That the board of trustees of the town had never provided by ordinance any system for the assessment, levy, and collection of taxes as required by the act of March 13, 1883 ■ (section 871), and for that reason the levy was not authorized and the tax was not delinquent, and therefore its collection could not be enforced.

Upon the first point the court found as follows:—

“ That said strip includes at its extreme west end the dwelling-house, corral, barn, orchard, water-tank, and out-buildings of said John S. Mayes, and is part of the farm of said John S. Mayes, consisting of one thousand [168]acres, and is used entirely in connection therewith, and had been inclosed with a fence and so used for some years prior to the incorporation of said town in 1878, and is now-so used.

“ That said land is not benefited by being within said limits of said town; is not laid out in lots or platted; has no streets, or alleys, or sidewalks, sewers, gas-mains, or other municipal improvements or appliances and conveniences, and is not needed by said town for any of these purposes.”

The court further found as a conclusion of law that the strip of land was not subject to taxation for municipal purposes, and that the tax levied against it and the improvements thereon was therefore illegal and void.