Melville Fuller

“ The chancellor, in his opinion, pointed out that the act of the general assembly of Kentucky entitled 'An act to revise and amend the tax laws of the city of Louisville,' approved May 12, 1884, provided for a discount of 3 per cent. on taxes paid in January, of 2 per cent. on those paid in February, and of 1 per cent. on those paid in March; but that the assessments for taxation, to which the act related, did not in terms include railroad property, the assessment of which was provided for by chapter 92 of the General Statutes of Kentucky. ”

“ The agreed case presented no issue as to the validity of the statute, but simply the question of its construction. The company did not sue to recover back the taxes it had paid on the ground of the invalidity of the laws under which they were levied, but to recover the discount allowed to taxpayers by a particular statute. The chancery court was shut up by the agreement to determine whether the company was or was not entitled to that discount. ”

“ The penalty on those failing to pay taxes to the city is not made to apply to the appellant, and it is plain, we think, that the charter provision or the law in regard to the assessment, collection, and payment of the taxes of the citizen within the municipality does not include railroads or such corporate property, and equally apparent that the legislature, in regard to these corporations, can enact a different system or mode of assessment and collection from that under which taxes are ordinarily collected ”