Swords

The appellant, as receiver of the First National Bank of Billings, Mont., seeks in equity a decree declaring null and void a special assessment for a local improvement levied under the authority of the state of Montana upon real estate which, as property of the bank, had come into his hands as receiver. He contends that the state is without power to imposp such a charge on real estate belonging to a national bank without special authorization by act of Congress, and that the assessment being a tax on said real estate, is void for not having been levied in accordance with the provisions of section 5219 of the Revised Statutes; that is to say, “according to value as other real property is taxed.”

While it is true that national banks are subject to state taxation only as Congress expressly permits (Des Moines Bank v. Fairweather, 263 U. S. 103 ; Owensboro National Bank v. Owensboro, 19 S. Ct. 537 , 173 U. S. 664 , 43 L. Ed. 850 ; Farmers’, etc., National Bank v. Dearing, 91 U. S. 29 , 23 L. Ed. 196 ), section 5219 of the Revised Statutes, under the title “Regulation of National Banks” (Comp. St. § 9784), provides: “Nothing herein shall be construed to exempt the real property of…