Skagit County v. Northern Pac. Ry. Co.

The counties of Skagit and Kittitas, of the state of Washington, and the county treasurer, sheriff, and prosecuting attorney of Skagit county, appeal from a temporary injunction made and entered, enjoining twenty-three counties and their respective county officers, including appellants, from collecting certain taxes levied upon the personal property of the appellee Northern Pacific Railway Company for the years 1927, 1928, and 1929. The appellee, hereinafter referred to as the Railway Company, instituted these actions to enjoin the collection of that portion of the tax levied upon their operating railroad property- for the years 1927, 1928, and 1929, by the taxing authorities of the various co-unties defendant through whose territory the Railway Company operated its railroad, upon the ground that the assessment of such proportion was so excessive as compared with the assessment of all other property in the counties levying the tax as to he actually or constructively fraudulent and void. The Railway Company asked for a permanent injunction against the collection of the tax and also prayed for a decree adjudging “the unpaid balance) of the tax be ordered cancelled and stricken from…