State v. Jones
Texas Supreme Court
Appeal from Matagorda. This suit was brought by the State to recover a penalty of five hundred dollars from the defendant for his refusal to return for assessment and taxation corn and cotton owned by him on the 1st ■day of January, 1848. The defense set up by the defendant was that the corn ■and cotton were the produce of his plantation for the year preceding. The court sustained the defense, and the State appealed.
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Appeal from Matagorda. This suit was brought by the State to recover a penalty of five hundred dollars from the defendant for his refusal to return for assessment and taxation corn and cotton owned by him on the 1st ■day of January, 1848. The defense set up by the defendant was that the corn ■and cotton were the produce of his plantation for the year preceding. The court sustained the defense, and the State appealed. The. error assigned raises the question as to what is and what is not property within the meaning and intention of the first section of the act of 1S4G “to raise a revenue by…
1Opinion of the CourtLipscomb, J.
The word “property” used in the statute imposing taxes is certainty comprehensive enough to embrace corn and cotton; and were the question to be decided on the import of that term in the abstract, it would be destructive of the defense set up. But such construction of the term “property,” when taken in connection with the Constitution and law imposing taxes for the purpose of raising a revenue, would be so unequal, unjust, anil oppressive to the planting interest of the State that it cannot be supposed that such was the meaning of the law. A single view of the subject will fully show that it…
2Cited by2 opinions
- Walker v. Farmers' & Merchants' State Bank of WintersCourt of Appeals of Texas · 1912
- Eastham v. JonesCourt of Appeals of Texas · 1921