Stephen Johnson Field

“ It must sometimes lead also to overvaluation of the shares; but, if so, no ground is thereby furnished for the recovery of the taxes collected thereon. It is only where the assessment is wholly void, or void with respect to separable portions of the property, the amount collected on which is ascertainable, or where the assessment has been set aside as invalid, that an action at law will lie for the texes paid, or for a portion thereof. Overvaluation of property is not a ground of action at law for the excess of taxes paid beyond what should have been levied upon a just valuation. ”

“ In People v. Weaver, 100 U.S. 539, this court held, with reference to taxation thus authorized, that the prohibition against discrimination has reference to the entire process of assessment, and includes the valuation of the shares, as well as the rate of percentage charged, and therefore that a statute of New York, which established a mode of assessment by which such shares were valued higher in proportion to their real value than other moneyed capital in the hands of individuals, was in conflict with the prohibition, although no greater percentage was levied on such valuation. ”

“ A different method might have led to perplexing difficulties, owing to the great fluctuations to which shares in banking institutions are subject, their value depending very much on the skill and wisdom of the managers of those institutions. Intelligent men constantly differ in their estimate of the value of such property, and the stock market shows almost daily changes. ”

“ The diversity of human judgments, and the uncertainty attending all human evidence, preclude the possibility of this attainment. Intelligent men differ as to the value of even the most common objects before them,-of animals, houses, and lands in constant use. ”