Effective 28 Aug 1939

94.370. Personal tax, how collected. — 1. Taxes now or hereafter levied on personal property by the proper authorities of any city in this state, organized or existing under a special charter, shall constitute a debt in favor of such city, for which a personal judgment may be recovered before an associate circuit judge or recovered in the circuit courts of this state against the person on whose personal property such taxes shall be levied.

2. Actions for the recovery of such taxes shall be prosecuted in the name of the city entitled to recover the same at the relation and to the use of the collector of revenue of such city and against the person on whose property said taxes are levied, and all personal taxes in the payment of which any person may be delinquent, whether for one or more years, may be recovered in one action, and may be set forth and stated in a single count in a petition or in separate counts.

3. The taxes sued for shall be set forth in a back tax bill filed with the petition, which back tax bill shall state the total valuation for each year of the personal property on which the taxes sued for have been levied, and shall also state, separately, the amount due for each year to each fund for which taxes are levied. Such back tax bill, authenticated by the certificate of such collector, shall be prima facie evidence in the case wherein it is filed that the amount stated in said back tax bill to be due is correct and is due and unpaid.

4. And the circuit courts and associate circuit judges shall have jurisdiction of all such suits without regard to the amount sued for. Suits hereunder commenced in the circuit courts or before an associate circuit judge shall be governed by the general laws of this state as to practice, and on all judgments rendered a general execution shall be issued, and no property shall be exempt from seizure and sale under such execution.

5. It shall be the duty of the city attorney of any such city to prosecute all actions brought hereunder; provided, however, that the mayor of any such city, by and with the consent of the council thereof, may, in lieu of said city attorney, employ, for a period of not to exceed one year at a time, a competent attorney, whose duty it shall be to institute and prosecute all such actions. Such attorney, whether city attorney or special attorney, shall receive as fees in such case the sum of one dollar and fifty cents and, in addition thereto, the sum of ten percent of the taxes actually collected, all of which fees shall be taxed as cost in the case, and shall be collected as other costs; but in no case shall the city or the collector be liable for any cost, nor shall any costs be taxed against them or either of them.

6. Suits hereunder shall not be instituted until the taxes sued for have been delinquent thirty days, and all suits shall be instituted within five years after delinquency.

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(RSMo 1939 § 7443)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 7290; 1919 § 8705; 1909 § 9583