Opinion
Decided June, 1890.
The remedy against a tax illegally assessed is by appeal from the assessment.
ASSUMPSIT, to recover back money paid for taxes which the plaintiff claims were illegally assessed upon the parochial school property of the Catholic church in Laconia, from 1879 to 1888 inclusive.
F. M. Beckford, for the plaintiff.
Jewell Stone, for the defendants.
The taxes which have been paid under the impression that the assessment was legal cannot be recovered back. The remedy was by an appeal from the assessment. Edes v. Boardman, 58 N.H. 580; Locke v. Pittsfield, 63 N.H. 122; Boody v. Watson, 64 N.H. 162, 187. Payments made under a mistake of law cannot be recovered back. Ladd v. Kenney, 2 N.H. 340; Webber v. Aldrich, 2 N.H. 461; Pinkham v. Gear, 3 N.H. 163, 168; Peterborough v. Lancaster, 14 N.H. 382; Evans v. Gale, 17 N.H. 573; Manchester v. Burns, 45 N.H. 482, 486; Bisp. Eq. (2d ed.) 244; Pom. Eq. Jur., s. 851. The payments were voluntary. Bean v. Jones, 8 N.H. 149; Caldwell v. Wentworth, 14 N.H. 431; Barrett v. Cambridge, 10 Allen 48; Lee v. Templeton, 13 Gray 476; Forbes v. Appleton, 5 Cush. 115, 117, 118; Railroad Co. v. Commissioners, 98 U.S. 541, 543; Little v. Bowers, 134 U.S. 547.
The question whether the property was legally taxable does not arise in the case, and has not been considered.
Exceptions overruled.
SMITH, J., did not sit: the others concurred.