Ratable Value

By the phrase ratable value, as used in the Connecticut statute against evasive transfers of bank stock, is not meant the percentage at which the stock goes into the grand levy, that is, six per cent of its value, but the whole amount of the stock at its actual value. Barrow v. Langdon, 20 Conn. 288. Rate, or rates, with some variation from the vernacular meaning. Rate or rates of fare means the price or amount which passengers may be required to pay. Rate or rating of vessels means their estimation with regard to insurable qualities. The words "rate" and "rates" are often used as interchangeable with "tax" and "taxes." This is particularly noticeable in English books, where "rates" is considered to signify local taxes, chiefly the county rate, the borough rate, and the poor rate. The county rate is levied by the justices assembled at general or quarter sessions, who are authorized and empowered by law to assess and tax every parish, township, and other place, whether parochial or extra-parochial, within the respective limits of their commissions, according to the annual value of the property, messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments rateable to the relief of the poor therein. The borough rate is levied by the town council. The poor rate is levied by the church-wardens and overseers within each parish. The expression "rates, taxes, and duties," in a lease of city property, includes an assessment under the betterment acts, although local and special. Curtis v. Pierce, 115 Mass. 186. Rate, in connection with the provision of a statute prescribing a land tax in any rate "not exceeding four dollars to the quarter section," denotes that 160 acres being taken as the unit of quantity, whatever may be the ratio between that and the tax, the same relative proportion must be observed as to any other given quantity of land, more or less, that falls within the apportionment. Burlington, &c. R. R. Co. v. Lancaster Co., 4 Neb. 293. Rate of exchange. The price at which a bill drawn in one place or country upon another can be bought or sold where drawn. See Story Bills, § 31; Wharton; also Par of Exchange.