Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/840

 sessed and to be levied and charged against shares of stock of state banks and trust companies within the state for the year 1921 will be more than $600,000, 25 per cent. of which will be paid under protest, and the payment of 75 per cent. thereof will be resisted.

The petition further shows that the capital stock of the plaintiff's bank is $10,000; that during the month of April, 1920, while chap. 62 of the Laws of the Special Session of the Legislature for 1919 was in force and effect, the duly’ and legally qualified and acting taxing authorities of the village of Page, county of Cass, state of North Dakota, and George E. Wallace, as tax commissioner, claimed and asserted that the shares of capital stock of the plaintiff were subject to assessment for the purpose of taxation, and, acting under color of the law for the taxation of shares of bank stock as contained in § 2115 of the Compiled Laws, they demanded that plaintiff make return and furnish a statement to the assessor accordingly; that the plaintiff thereupon, through its proper officers, did make such statement and return, disclosing and showing the value of its shares of stock on the 1st day of April, 1920; that such statement showed the amount and number of its shares of capital stock, the amount of surplus, reserve fund, and undivided profits in excess of the amount equal to 5 per cent. of the loans and discounts of the bank, and the amount of its net investment in real estate, and which showed that the amount of the capital stock was $10,000, and the surplus and undivided profits $21,066.65, and that it had no real estate; it further showed a list of the plaintiff's stockholders; that, acting upon the statement and return other information, the assessing officers assessed and returned against the shares of capital stock of the various owners thereof a valuation of $31,066.65; that, upon the assessment so made and returned, the various district, county, and state taxing officers in conformity to the procedure of laws for the perfection of a tax claim against such shares of stock, did take, in due form of law, such steps for the assessment, equalization, levy, spreading, and charging of the tax against such shares of stock, and did take ail such other proceedings, and did such other things as were necessary for the perfection of a tax against such shares of stock, taking all such steps, and doing all such things in exact conformity to the provisions of the law, and, if the said shares of stock were taxable under the laws of the state then existing, the tax thereafter mentioned would be a valid and existing tax charge against such shares of stock and against the