Joseph P. Bradley

“ The court has no more authority, in point of law, to seize the property of citizens for the debt of the corporation in which they reside (except in some of the Eastern States, where a different system prevails) than it has to seize the property of another corporation. Its power to issue a mandamus to compel municipal officers to perform their duty of levying a tax is a distinct power, which extends to all ministerial acts which officers are legally bound and refuse to perform. ”

“ In the first place, we think that the corporation of the Board of Levee Commissioners of the parishes of Madison and Carroll is no longer in existence as a matter of fact. It is true, that the acts of 1861, abrogating the district, and creating two separate districts, one for each parish, did not in terms abolish the old corporation, but reserved to it the power to levy taxes in order to meet its outstanding indebtedness. ”

“ Liens for taxes are very generally created throughout the country; but it is never supposed that the public creditors, to whom the money raised by tax is to be paid, have the benefit of such lien. It is created for the benefit of the public authorities, to enable them with greater certainty and facility to collect the taxes, without the embarrassment of other pretended claims against the property taxed. ”