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killing other property; and the owner of any such dog or dogs, so stolen, wounded, poisoned, or killed, after complying with the provisions of this act, may have a right of action in damages against any such person or persons guilty of the violation of the provisions of this act for the sum not exceeding the assessed value of such dog or dogs.

But nothing in this act shall prevent the killing of any vicious or dangerous dog off the premises and out of the control of the owner, nor the killing of any dog running at large and out of the control of the owner thereof, after such owner shall have had notice and still permits such dog to run at large and out of his control; and no person shall be liable in damages or to prosecution by reason of any such killing.

Sec. 9a-2. The county court shall annually levy a per capita tax on every male dog four weeks old and over, or every female dog four weeks old and under eight months old, of one dollar, and on every unspayed female dog over eight months old, three dollars. Any court may discriminate as to each owner of more than one dog by increasing the amount of tax on each additional dog, and the tax so levied shall be paid by the person respectively, in whose name the dogs shall be listed.

See. 9a-3. The per capita tax imposed upon the dogs of any county, shall be collected and accounted for by the sheriff of such county, as county levies are collected and accounted for, and to that end it shall be the duty of the court, in convenient time, to cause a list to be delivered to such sheriff, containing the names of all persons charged with a per capita tax on dogs, and the amount. assessed against each; for collecting, accounting for and paying out the per capita dog tax, the sheriff shall be allowed the like commission as allowed for collecting and accounting for the county levies; provided, however, that for so much thereof as he receives from the constables upon the list provided for by the next section, he shall for accounting for and paying out the same be allowed one-half commission; the sheriff shall have charge of all the moneys accruing from the per capita tax upon dogs, or for fines imposed under this act, collected within his county; and the same shall constitute a fund for renumerating the inhabitants thereof. for any loss they may sustain by injury done to their sheep, lambs, goats or kids by dogs within their county; whenever the surplus arising from any such fund at the end of any fiscal year shall ex

ceed one-half of the amount expended therefrom, for the preceding year, the county court of any county shall apply such excess to the general road fund of such county.

Sec-9-a-4. The court shall cause a list of all persons failing to pay the per capita dog tax assessed against them, and by the sheriff returned delinquent for non-payment of per capita dog tax, to be delivered to the constable of the districts in which they reside with the number of dogs listed to each, and amount of per capita tax assessed severally against each; and it shall be the duty of such constable upon receiving such list forthwith to search out, kill and, bury every dog in respect to the per capita tax on which the owner shall be delinquent (where there are more than one constable in the district the court shall designate which shall act,) and any person who shall conceal a dog for the purpose of evading the provisions of this section shall pay a fine of five dollars; but no dog shall be killed by virtue of this section, whose owner shall pay the constable the per capita tax in respect to which he is so delinquent; and it shall be the duty of such constable, before killing any dog. by virtue of this section, to notify the owner of such delinquency and of the amount of per capita tax he is required to pay: each constable receiving such list shall make due return to his county court, at such time as the court shall direct, of the manner in which he has discharged his duties respecting the same, and shall pay over to the sheriff any taxes or fines collected by him, taking duplicate receipts therefor, one of which he shall file with the clerk of the county court, who shall charge the sheriff with the amount of the same; each constable shall be liable for the per capita tax assessed upon every dog enumerated in such list, of which he shall not fail to return a satisfactory account to the court. The constable shall be allowed by their respective courts, a just compensation for the services required of and performed by them under this act, to be paid out of such per capita dog tax, and they and their securities. shall be liable on their official bond, upon motion in the circuit court of their respective counties, for any money received by them which they may be liable to pay by virtue of this act.

2. Section 9a-10 and section 9a-11 of the code of one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine are hereby repealed.

CHAPTER 15.

(House Bill No. 13.)

AN ACT to amend and re-enact sections fifty-three and seventynine of chapter twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia as last amended and re-enacted by chapter four of the acts of one thousand nine hundred and four, and chapter thirty-five of the acts of one thousand nine hundred and five, relating to the assessment of taxes.

[Passed March 5, 1907. In effect ninety days from passage. Approved by the Governor, March 6, 1907.]

SEC. 53.

Duty of assessor or his assistants
to see every person in his coun-
ty liable to taxation; capitation
tax; collected by assessor; as-
sessor to report to auditor;
when; compensation for collect-
ing; assessor to report to coun-
ty court; duties of sheriffs to

SEC.

79.

collect delinquent capitation tax; duty of state tax commissioner to furnish all tickets, blanks and forms; penalties for failure to turn over moneys collected.

Banks and trust companies; how assessed; returns; when made.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That sections fifty-three and seventy-nine of chapter twentynine of the code of West Virginia as last amended and re-enacted by chapter four of the acts of one thousand nine hundred and four, and chapter thirty-five of the acts of one thousand nine hundred and five, relating to the assessment of taxes be and the same are hereby amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 53. While making such assessments, it shall be the duty of the assessor and assistants to see every person in his county who i liable to taxation therein upon property or capitation, and obtain from him the sworn statement of his personal property. He shall at the same time collect from every person liable for the capitation tax mentioned in section two or article ten of the constitution, or for road capitation tax, the amount of such tax, and deliver to such person a receipt therefor. In case any person liable therefor shall fail or refuse to pay such capitation, the assessor shall levy upon and take into his possession property or effects of the delinquent sufficient to pay said capitation taxes, and the cost of levy and sale; the assessor shall have as to said capitation taxes, the same powers of levy and sale and of collection of taxes, and he shall be entitled to the same fees; the assessor shall, not later that the fifteenth day of each month turn over to the auditor all capitations

for the state school purposes collected by him during the previous month and not paid over, less commission of ten per cent, to which the assessor shall be entitled for collection; he shall also at the end of each month turn over to the sheriff all capitations collected for district road purposes and not paid over, less commissions of ten per cent, to which the assessor shall be entitled for collection. At the levy term of the county court the assessor shall make report to said court of all capitations collected for state school purposes, and all capitations collected for district road purposes, the names of those from whom collected, the names of all delinquents, and the cause of delinquency in each case. The said report shall be verified by the affidavit of the assessor; said assessor shall not thereafter for the year have authority to collect capitations, but a copy of said report shall be by the county court turned over to the sheriff, who shall forthwith proceed to collect all capitations remaining unpaid whether or not they appear on said report; upon the capitation collected by the sheriff for state school and district road purposes, he shall be allowed a compensation of ten per cent, of which the assessor shall be required to pay one-half of all over five per cent; the assessor shall be charged by the county court with all delinquencies appearing in his said report, and likewise with all delinquencies not reported by him but afterwards ascertained or reported by the sheriff, or ascertained in any other way, and credited with all collections on that account made and paid over to the sheriff, less two and one-half per cent, to cover the sheriff's extra compensation; he shall also be credited with such delinquencies as the county court shall be satisfied could not have been collected either by the assessor or sheriff, by the exercise of due dil igence, and in case the sheriff shall fail to use due diligence in the ascertainment and collection of such delinquencies, he and his sureties on his official bond, shall be liable to the assessor for all damages sustained by him on that account. The assesser shall in addition to other bonds required of him, give a bond in a penalty to be fixed by the county court of not less than four thousand dollars, nor more than twenty thousand dollars, and conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties under this chapter.

It shall be the duty of the state tax commissioner to prepare and furnish to the assessors all tickets, blanks and forms necessary for the purpose of this section; the ticket so furnished for each county shall be numbered consecutively, and the assessor shall account for

Any

each ticket furnished him, as well as for the taxes collected. assesser, assessors or assistant assessors failing to account for and turn over any money or moneys collected by them under the provisions of this section shall be guilty of embezzlement.

Sec. 79. The shares of stock in a bank, trust company or national banking association, shall be assessed at the true and actual value, according to the rule prescribed in section twelve of this chapter, to the several holders of such stock in the county, district and town where such bank, company or association, is located, and not elsewhere, whether such holders reside there or not, and no deductions shall be allowed from the valuations of such shares of stock on account of what is due another as principal debtor or otherwise, notwithstanding the provisions of any other section or sections of this chapter; the real and actual value of such shares shall be ascertained according to the best information which the assesssor may be able to obtain, whether from any return made by such bank, company or association to any officer of the state or United States, for actual sales of the stock, from answers to questions by the assessor as hereinafter provided, or from other trustworthy sources; the cashier, secretary or principal accounting officer of every such bank, company or association, shall cause to be kept a correct list of the names and residence of all the shareholders therein and the number of shares held by each, which list shall be open to the inspection of the assessors of the county, and of the state tax commissioner or assistants; and such cashier, secretary or officer shall answer under oath such questions as the assessor may ask him concerning the matters shown by said list and concerning the value of said shares, and shall be subject to the same penalties for failure to do so, which are imposed by law upon individuals failing to answer questions which the assessor is authorized to ask. The taxes so assessed upon the shares of any such bank, company or association shall be paid by the cashier, secretary or proper accounting officer thereof, and in the same manner and at the same time as other taxes are required to be paid in such county, district and town. In default of such payment such cashier, secretary or accounting officer as well as such bank, company or association, shall be liable for such taxes, and, in addition, for a sum equal to ten per centum thereof; any taxes so paid upon any such share may, with interest thereon, be recovered from the owners thereof, by the bank, company, association or officer paying them or may be deducted from

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