p. 139under section 6 of the article of the revised statutes relating to “the place in which property is to be assessed,” whereas the assessment had been made in accordance with the provisions of section 5 of that article.
Winfield, Leeds & Morse, for the relator.
I. The relator’s property can only be assessed in the mode prescribed by the legislature, and in no other manner. (Wilson, v. Mayor, &c., 4 E. D. Smith, 675; S. C., 1 Abb. Pr. 4 ).II. The property of a foreign corporation must be assessed in like manner as if it were a resident corporation (Laws of 1855, chap. 37, § 1; British Com. Ins. Co. v. Commissioners, &c., 1 Keyes, 303; S. C., 1 Abb. Ct. of App. Dec. 199).III. The relator is a foreign corporation, and its property must be assessed in like manner as if it were a resident or domestic corporation. The assessment is made in accordance with the provisions of section 5 of the article of the revised statutes relating to “the place in which property is to be assessed,” viz., against the agent under whose control the property was, as claimed by defendants. The assessment, however, being against a corporation, could only be made in accordance with the provisions of section 6 of said article, viz., in the town or ward “where the principal office or place for transacting its financial concerns shall be” (1 Rev. Stat. [6th ed.] 935, as amended by Laws of 1855, chap. 37; British Com. Ins. Co. v. Comm’rs, &c., 1 Keyes, 303; S. C., 1 Abb. Ct. of App. Dec. 199).IV. Since the relator has “no principal office or place for transacting its financial concerns,” in the town of Ossining, county of Westchester, the assessors had no power or authority under the statute to assess its property there, and such assessment is therefore wholly unauthorized, illegal and absolutely void.
p. 140Y. Since the assessors had no power or jurisdiction to make the assessment against the relator, their action may be reviewed by this court, as the supreme authority, and the assessment roll may be corrected in the hands of the supervisors at any time before it has passed beyond their jurisdiction (People v. Reddy, 43 Barb. 539 ; Starr v. Trustees of Rochester, 6 Wend. 565 ; Le Roy v. Mayor, &c., 20 Johns. 430 ; Wilson v. Mayor, &c., 4 E. D. Smith, 675).YI. Where the court is asked to affirm or reverse, modify or correct the assessment roll, which has been brought before the court, the judgment is rendered upon the record, and the court may order the officer in whose custody it is to correct it. Therefore, the answer of the assessors that the roll has passed out of their hands is insufficient (People v. Reddy, 43 Barb. 539 ).Marcius L. Cobb, for defendants.
The relator is a foreign corporation, having a principal office and place for the transacting of the business and financial concerns of the company in the city of New York. It has certain machinery and personal property in the possession and under the control of an agent at the state prison, at the town of Ossining, used in the manufacture of boots and shoes,, by convict labor, in the prison.
The assessors of the town of Ossining have assessed their property to the agent in their assessment roll for 1878, under the provision of section 5 of article 1, title 2, chapter 13, part 1, of the revised statutes (1 It. 8. 6th ed. 934), which provides that every person shall be assessed in the town or ward where he resides when the assessment is made for all personal estate owned by him, including all personal estate in his possession or under his control as agent, trustee, &c. Section 6 of the same article provides that all the personal es
p. 141tate of every incorporated company liable to taxation on its capital, shall be assessed in the town or ward where the principal office or place for transacting the financial concerns of the company shall be. It is entirely clear that the last section must control in respect to the place where the personal property of every incorporated company must be assessed, and that the same cannot be assessed in any other place, even though found in the possession of an agent.
In the year 1855, a law was passed in this State providing that all persons and associations doing business in the State of New York as merchants, bankers, or otherwise, either as principals or partners, whether special or otherwise, and not residents of this State, shall be assessed and taxed on all sums invested in any manner in said business, the same as if they were residents of this State, &c. This law placed foreign corporations on the same footing with domestic, and subjected them to the same mode of taxation as if they were residents within the State (British Comm. Life Ins. Co. v. Comm’rs, 1 Keyes, 303; 1 Abb. Ct. App. Dec. 202 ).
There is no difficulty about striking this assessment from the roll, as that has been brought into this court by the supervisor in whose hands it now is (People v. Reddy, 43 Barb. 545 ).
An order must therefore be entered directing the supervisor to strike this assessment from the assessment roll of the town.