Sterling v. McMaster

Bryan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Sterling, the sheriff of Somerset County, filed a petition for a mandamus against McMaster, treasurer and collector of the same county. It was alleged that McMaster, in violation of his duty, refused to place in the hands of the sheriff certain bills for the collection of unpaid taxes, and the petition prayed that he might be compelled by mandamus to perform the alleged duty. A demurrer having been entered by consent, the Court dismissed the petition.

The duties of the treasurer and collector were imposed by the Act of 1894, chapter 578. By the two hundred and fifteenth section of the Act he is required each year, as soon as the annual levy is made, to give public notice thereof by advertisement in at least two newspapers published in Somerset County, .and the taxes are declared to be due and payable on the first day of October of the year in which they are levied. By the same section it is made the duty of the treasurer and collector to sit for two days for the purpose of receiving taxes at the principal town in each election district in the county, and if there be no town, then at the principal or some convenient place of resort therein; and he is. required to give due notice of each of said sittings by advertisement in two newspapers published in the county. By the two hundred and sixteenth section it is declared that on the first day of January in each year, taxes shall be deemed to be in arrears, and interest shall be collected on them from the first day' of October.

The treasurer is required as soon as practicable after the first day of January to deliver to each delinquent who has not previously received such notice, an account of the assessment and the taxes and interest due thereon, with a notice and warning thereto attached, that unless payment in full be made within sixty days from the delivery of such notice, the same shall be collected by process of law. It is also required by the same section that all tax bills unpaid on the first day of April, after the service of such notice shall be placed by the treasurer in the hands of the sheriff, who ¹⁶⁶ is required forthwith to proceed to collect them according to the provisions of the Public General Laws. The petition alleges that on the ist day-of April, 1895, a large proportion of the bills of State and county taxes being unpaid, he demanded of William S. McMaster, the treasurer and collector as aforesaid, that the taxes remaining unpaid on that date be handed over to him, your petitioner, under the provisions of the said Act, and placed in his hands for collection; but the said William S. McMaster, contrary to his duty, neglected and refused, and still neglects and refuses to place the said bills for taxes remaining unpaid in the hands of the petitioner for collection. The quotations from the statute which we have made, show that as soon as practicable after the first day of January, the treasurer shall deliver to each delinquent (who has not previously received notice) an account of his assessment, accompanied with the notice and warning that the tax will be collected by process of law, if not paid within sixty days.

He is of course entitled to a reasonable time to deliver these notices and warnings. ' The terms of the Act imply a personal delivery to each delinquent. Although it is impossible to determine in advance what length of time might be required to make these deliveries, yet it is very certain that the treasurer ought to act promptly and diligently, as