Kirby v. Shaw
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Common. Pleas of Bradford county. This was an amicable action entered into between P. L. Shaw, as plaintiff, and J. P. Kirby, as defendant, for the purpose of trying the liability of the said plaintiff to be assessed in pursuance of an Act of Assembly passed on the 3d April, 1848, authorizing the commissioners of Bradford county to add the sum of $500 annually, till the year 1857, to the usual county rates and levies of the borough of Towanda in that county, for…
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Error to the Common. Pleas of Bradford county. This was an amicable action entered into between P. L. Shaw, as plaintiff, and J. P. Kirby, as defendant, for the purpose of trying the liability of the said plaintiff to be assessed in pursuance of an Act of Assembly passed on the 3d April, 1848, authorizing the commissioners of Bradford county to add the sum of $500 annually, till the year 1857, to the usual county rates and levies of the borough of Towanda in that county, for the purpose of defraying the expense of erecting a Court-house and jail, then in the process of erection, in lieu of…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court, filed was delivered by
Gibson, J.
In every government taxation is an attribute of sovereignty, exercised at the will of the monarch in a despotism, and in accordance with the organic law in a republic. In England, taxes were laid by the sole authority of the king till the reign of Edward the First, who bound himself and successors to exercise this part of the prerogative only with the assent of the lords and commons ; but though it ceased to be royal and became national, it ceased not to be an attribute of sovereign power. In every American state, the people, in the…
2Cited by9 opinions
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- Alco Parking Corp. v. City of PittsburghCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania · 1972
- Worten v. City of PaducahCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1906
- City Ry. Co. v. BeardDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio · 1923
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