Page:Haynie v. Surplus Trading Co.pdf/10

516 deposited in various banks in the city of Little_Rock to the credit of said honorary commission. The assessment was made by the assessor upon the theory that part of the Money belonged to the Surplus Trading Company and it had failed to assess the same as required by law. Under the facts stated, as we construe them, this money deposited in the various banks in Little Rock to the credit of the honorary commission did not belong to the Surplus Trading Company at the time the assessment was made. It belonged to the honorary commission, as trustee for the benefit of the Arkansas National Guard, and was, on that account, the property of the State. It is true that the Surplus Trading Company had earned a portion of it by its services in the matter, as above stated, but it did not actually have any right to the money until the honorary commission settled with it and paid it for its services. Until that was done, the case would stand like that of any other agent who had performed services for his principal and had collected money for him, but had not yet been paid for his services. Under this state of the record we have the case of an illegal assessment and not one of excessive valuation or an erroneous assessment. The assessment being absolutely void, the assessor had no right to make it. As we have already seen, the suit was brought by the collector to recover taxes from the Surplus Trading Company, and it was proper for the chancellor to grant all relief, legal or equitable, to which the parties in the lawsuit were entitled. Fulcher v. Dierks Lumber & Coal Co., 164 Ark. 261, 261 S.W. 645.

The result of our views is that the chancellor should have held the assessment for the year 1923 to be illegal and void, and properly restrained the sheriff from collecting any amount of taxes from the Surplus Trading Company under it. The chancery court, however, erred in holding that the sheriff and collector was not entitled to recover the taxes for the year 1922 and the penalties provided by the statute, as indicated in the opinion.

Therefore the decree will be reversed, and the cause will be remanded with the directions to allow the sheriff