Gully, Tax Collector v. Stewart

The state tax collector filed the bill in this case in the chancery court of Harrison county against appellees to recover for the state the sum of $400,000, the value of the sand and gravel alleged to have been wrongfully removed by them from the bed of Bayou Bernard, a navigable body of water in Harrison county in this state. The chancellor dismissed the bill on demurrer. From that decree the state tax collector prosecutes this appeal.

At the threshold we are met with the question as to the power of the state tax collector to bring and prosecute this suit. His powers to sue are contained in…