Reading Coal & Iron Company's Assessment

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Frazer,

The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company is owner of four tracts of coal land on which it had been assessed, previous to the year 1922, at a total valuation of $331,905, made up as follows: Locust Mountain, $3,105; Ashland Estate, $116,000; Locustdale Estate, $207,200, and Locust Gap, $5,600. In 1922 the county commissioners procured the services of a mining engineer to examine the company’s mines, prepare maps and reports, and testify as an expert witness on behalf of the county if necessary, and acting on his report the commissioners increased the…