Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/335

 I3N1TKD STATES V. LABETTE COUNTY. 323 �necessary to inquire how other taxes are collected under the Btatutes of Kausas. It is conceded tkat it is the duty of the county board to make the levy. Who is to collect and pay over? By section 83, c. 107, Comp. Laws of Kansas 1879, it is made the duty of the county clerk to prepare annually, immediately after the first Monday in August, a tax roll, which roll he shall, on or before the first day of November, deliver to the county treasurer, charging him "with the amount of the respective taxes assessed on the tax roll." Sub- sequent provisions of the same chapter provide for the col- lection of taxes by the treasurer. I have already cited the provision of the statute which makes it the duty of the treas- urer to pay over the partioular taxes under consideration to the parties entitled thereto. It appears, then, that the stat- ute requires: �(1) That the taxes shall be levied by the board of county commissioners ; (2) that the tax roll shall be prepared by the county clerk ; (3) that the taxes shall be collected and paid over by the treasurer. �3. It is insisted that the performance of all the foregoing duties by the several officers above named may be com- manded by a single writ addressed to the board of county commissioners alone. It is said that, under the law of Kan- sas, each county is a corporation under the name and style of "The Board of County Commissioners of the County of �," and that, therefore, a writ addressed to the board is �addressed to the corporation, and may command the board, through its several agents, to perform all the duties com- manded by the writ. Each organized county within the state of Kansas is a body corporate and politie ; and, in all suits by or against a county, the name in which the county shall sue or be sued shall be the "Board of County Commis- sioners of the County of ." Chapter 25, Comp. Laws �of Kansas, 1879, §§ 1, 5. In Commissioners v.Sellew, 99 U. S. 624, the supreme court says : �"As the corporation can only act through agents, the courts will operate upon the agents through the corporation. When a copy of the writ, which bas been ordered, is served upon the clerk of the board, it will be served on Ihe corporation, and be etjuivalent to a command that ��� �