CITY OF GUTHRIE v. BOARD OF COM'RS OF LOGAN COUNTY

CITY OF GUTHRIE v. BOARD OF COM'RS OF LOGAN COUNTY
1924 OK 1078
232 P. 22
105 Okla. 237
Case Number: 14994
Decided: 12/02/1924
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

CITY OF GUTHRIE
v.
BOARD OF COM'RS OF LOGAN COUNTY.

Syllabus

¶0 1. Taxation--Penalties on Delinquent Taxes--Disposition--Statutes.
By section 8575, Comp. Stat. 1921, it was provided that all interest, penalties, and forfeitures upon delinquent taxes should be paid into the county sinking fund.
2. Same--Property in Cities.
By section 4 of the act of the Legislature of 1919. which took effect on March 29, 1919, being section 4623, Comp. Stat. 1921, all penalties on delinquent taxes on property situated within cities of the first class become the property of the city, and penalties collected or accruing prior to the above enactment were subject to the provisions of section 8575, supra.

Warren K. Snyder and Fred W. Green, for plaintiff in error.
Geo. W. Partridge, Co. Atty., and John Adams, for defendants in error.

JONES, C.

¶1 This action was instituted in the district court of Logan county, Okla., by plaintiff in error, against the defendants in error, to recover a certain sum of money and interest thereon, which had been collected by the county treasurer of Logan county, defendant, as penalties on taxes payable to the city of Guthrie for the years 1911 to. 1918 inclusive. Plaintiff alleges that by reason of certain provisions of its charter it is entitled to all penalties paid on delinquent taxes. The charter also provides the manner of payment of all taxes and penalties collected by the county treasurer to the city treasurer. The defendants interposed a demurrer to plaintiff's petition which was by the court sustained, upon the ground that the petition did not state a cause of action in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendants. Plaintiff elected to stand on the demurrer, and appealed from the judgment of the court, and assigns as error the action of the court in sustaining the demurrer. The question of law involved in this case, with reference to the right of the city to the penalties upon taxes, has been determined in the case of George K. Hunter, County Treasurer, v. State ex rel. City of Shawnee, 49 Okla. 672 154 P. 545, and the same rule has been reaffirmed by this court in the case of Board of County Commissioners of Custer County et al. v. City of Clinton, 49 Okla. 795, 154 P. 513, wherein it was held that the city was not entitled to appropriate the penalties, under section 3, art. 9, ch. 32, S. L. 1897, which is section 8575, Comp. Stat. 1921, which provides that all interest, penalties, and forfeitures upon delinquent taxes should be paid into the county sinking fund, and this was the law of the state until the act of 1919, section 4623, Comp. Stat. 1921, wherein it was provided that penalties for delinquent taxes became the property of the city, and should be paid into the street repair fund of cities of the first class. And as stated in the case of Custer County v City of Clinton, supra: