Assess

' 1.

To rate or fix the proportion which each person is to pay of a tax; to » 4B1.

Com. 14«: 3 Coke, Inst. 176. ' L. assentire, to agree to. ' Webster's Diet. * Crabbe's Syn. » See Welch v. Sackett, 12 Wis. *257 (1860), Dixon, C. J. "See 4 Wheat. 225; ISumn. 218; 12 Mass. 461,; UN. Y. 441; 1 Pars. Contr. 400; 2 Washb. E. P. 579. ' Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Young, 23 Wall. 107 (1874), Swayne, J. » Utley V. Donaldson, 94 U. S. 47-49 (1876), cases, Swayne, J.; First Nat. Bank of Quincy v. Hall, 101 id. 49-60(1879); 109 id.

97. • From L. assessor, an adjuster of taxes; originally tax. To adjust the shares of a contribution by several persons toward a common object according to the benefit received. To fix the value or the amount of a thing.i To detei-mine by rules of law a sum to be paid; to rate the proportional contribution due to a fund; to fix the amount payable by a person or persons in satisfaction of an estabhshed demand.

2 Assessor. (1) An adviser to a court; an expert.

Nautical assessor

A person, possessing special knowledge in matters of navigation and of maritime affairs, who assists, a court of admiralty.'^ Compare Alderman. (2) One who makes assessments for purposes of taxation or contribution. ' A person charged by law with the duty of ascertaining and determining the value of property as the foundation of a public tax.-" Assessment. The act or proceeding by which a sum due or payable is determined; also, the sum itself as a payment or obligation. As^ an assessment — of the damages suffered by a plaintiff; of the value of property taken for public use; of money as the equivalent of a benefit or burden caused by a municipal improvement; of losses in insurance; of installments payable upon stock subscriptions; of a sum to be raised by taxation, and of the portions due from individuals. Strictly speaking, an assessment of taxes is an official estimate of the sums which are to constitute the basis of an apportionment of a tax between the individual subjects of taxation within a district. As more commonly employed, consists in listing the persons, property, etc., to be taxed, and in estimating the sums which are to be the guide in an apportionment of the tax between themi; — valuation is a part of it.'''

— In a broad sense taxes undoubtedly include assessments, and the right to impose assessments has its foundation in the taking power of the government; but there is also a broad distinction between them. " Taxes " are public burdens imposed generally upon the inhabitants of the whole State, or upon some civil ' [Bouvler's Law Diet. ^ [Abbott's Law Diet. ' See The Clement, 2 Curt. 369 (1865); The Empire, 19 F. E. 559 (1884), cases. ■• Savings, &o. Society v. Austin, 46 Cal. 509 (1873), Wallace, C. J. division thereof, for governmental purposes without reference to peculiar benefits to particular individuals or property. "Assessments" have reference to impositions for improvements which are specially beneficial to individuals or property and which are imposed in proportion to the particular benefits supposed to be conferred. They are justified when the improvements confer special benefits and are equitable only when divided in proportion to such benefits. ' See Installment; Just, 2; Tax, 2; Value. Used of a business corporation, a rating or fixing, by the board of directors, of the proportion of his subscription which every subscriber is to pay, when notified of it and called upon.2 See Call, 3 (1). Political assessment. See Obticek. 3. To decide the degree of;

— to determine the extent of: as, to assess a punishment. A statute providing that issues of fact in criminal cases shall be tried by a jury, " who shall assess the punishment in their verdict," refers to offenses as to which the limits of pimishment are fixed by law and within which a discretion may be exercised.'