| Show II THE TAXPAYERS I A UJL A WI A Decision in the Case of Lowe vs Hardy A UNJUST AND EXCESSIVE LEVY ome Important Hallway Cases Decided The Council CaseThe Charges Acalnbt Lo mni Adjourned for the Term The Territorial Supreme cou jt met at 1 oclock yesterday morning all the judges being present I I tha case of Eliza Cook vs the Oregon j Short Line Utah Northern railway company on appeal from the Third dis 1 trict Judge Blackburn delivered the t opinion which was very brief In the court below the plaintiff recovered damages dam-ages for injuries sustained by her through lulling over defendants track on Third West street in this city The motion to dismiss the appeal from this judgment was denied and the motion to dismiss the appeal ap-peal from the order overruling the motion for a new triam was sustained because no I sufficient undertaking had been filed but time was give to file the same In Pool administra I the case of Malola administr trix of the estate of Joseph S Pool de cesed vs the Southern Pacific company Judge Miner delivered the opinion of the court The deceased was killed while ro I pairing a car In the defendants yard at Ogden on S ptember 18R3 and his widow obtained a verdict of 10000 damages in the First district court at Ogden in April 1890 The defendant in appealing assigned an error contributory negligence on the part of Pool contributory negligence on the part of a fellow servant of the deceased de-ceased excessive damages errors in the instructions of the court The judgment of the court below was affirmed Zane and Anderson concurring Judge Blackburn dissented and filed a separate opinion In the case of Albert Brown vs The Southern Pacific company Judge Anderson Ander-son delivered the opinion of the court Some time ago the plaintiff while in the employ of the defendant as brakeman was injured at Blue Creek station while attempting at-tempting t make a coupling and the injuries in-juries resulted in the loss of one of his hands The case was tried in the district court at Ogden and the plaintiff obtained ob-tained a verdict for 12000 damages dam-ages This judgment was afterwards reduced by Judge Henderson t 10000 and he overruled a motion for a now trial The moton a judgment of the court below was reversed I and a new trial awarded but the plaintiff offered to remit all of the judgment in excess ex-cess of 4000 and It was allowed to stand In the matter of the estate of Orson Pratt involving the question as to tho right of polygamous children to Inherit the judgment of the Third district court was reversed in accordance with the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the in which the same I Cope case question ques-tion was involved In the case of H E Drummond v the Southern Pacific a petition for a rehearing vas denied I the case of Sarah J Weaver vs W L Pickard involving some weo the judgment of the court below in favor of the plaintiff was reversed H R Franklin Valentine Gideon T D Johnson Noble Warren and M A Breeder were admitted to practice J L Schaffer of Brigham City was appointed ap-pointed a United States commissioner In the case of the charges made against I J D Lomax of Logan iL A flBreeden asked that the charges be made more defi nite The request was allowed and the court appointed David Evans to prepare and file the charges within twenty days and allowed Mr Lomax twenty days from the time ofifilingin which to answer In the afternoon in the case of the People 1 ex rel vs Louis Cohn et a known as the council cases Le Grande Young moved that the appeal be dismissed because the rule requiring the filing of an abstract had not been complied with The court allowed I al-lowed ten days for the filing of the abstract ab-stract and the case weLt over until the June term In the case of James Lowe et aL vs L G Hardy ot a Judge Blackburn delivered the opinion The plaintiffs in this case are taxpayers of the old Eleventh school district dis-trict of this city and in December 1SS9 they held a meeting and decided to raise the sum of 5500 which would be raised by a tax of 1 per cent upon the assessed value of the property in 18S9 and such a tax was levied The assessor and collector extended the tax upon the assessment roll of 1S90 instead of upon that of 1SS9 and upon that roll the tax voted would amount to over 16000 whicn ofcourse would bo vastly in excess of the amount intended to be raised and of the needs ef the district The legislature at its session in 1890 abolished the old school districts of the city and consolidated them all into one and provided pro-vided that the property of the several districts dis-tricts should belong t tho consolidated con-solidated district The assessments levied by some of the old districts were greatly under the amount which would have been raised on the assessment in Eleventh district Yet under the school law the money would all go into 3 general fund and this district would not derive any special benefit therefrom in I proportion t the amount paid by it The plaintiffs asked that the collection of the tax be enjoined because it operates unequally un-equally In different parts of the city that the taxwas not fully levied before it was abolished that the tax was voted upon the assessment roll of 1889 and not upon that of 1590 In concluding his opinion Judge Blackburn Black-burn says Courts unless compelled by the express wording of statutes should interpret in-terpret thorn so as to do good and not evil so a to work out equity of justice and not wrong and oppression We conclude there from that I is the duty of the collector in collecting this tax t compute the amount to be collected upon the assessment roll of I 18S9 This cause is reversed and remanded for further proceeding The same question is involved in tho case of Edward Ashtonet al vs L GHardy et alIt al-It is therefore reversed and remanded The same principles were also In question I in the case of B G Raybould et aL vs L G Hardy et a but the complaint does not raise the particular question upon which the foregoing decision turns It i therefore reversed and remanded with leave t the plaintiffs to amend their complaint com-plaint Judge Miner concurred in the result and dissented Judge Zane dissentd Adjourned for the rm |
