testate law, under the provisions of chap, 225, Laws of North Dakota, 1919.” (Italics are ours.)
The complaint alleges that notwithstanding the passage of the foregoing laws, the taxing officers have continued to tax bank stock according to the rate of levy prevailing in the district where the bank is situated. The contention in support of the practice complained of is that bank stock was not exempted from other taxation under the money and credits statute of 1917, and was not rendered subject to the tax therein imposed; that the term “bonds and stocks” used in the definition of moneys and credits for the purpose of applying that law does not mean bonds and stocks generally, but certain kinds of bonds and stocks, excluding bank stock from the category; in short that the term was used in a special sense not embracing bank stock at all, and that again in 1919, when the special session repealed the money and credits tax, it used the terms “bonds and stocks” in the same sense, and therefore did not include bank stock within the exemption from taxation therein granted.
The term “bonds and stocks” is an ordinary term easily capable of comparatively accurate definition. To the mind of the layman and lawyer alike it clearly embraces bonds and stocks of every sort that represents a money investment. It is as applicable to corporate stocks of one kind as to any other. There is no indication of a legislative intention to limit the meaning so as to make it applicable to certain stocks only, nor does the other legislation enacted concurrently with it point to its use in any limited sense. And, if it were used in a limited sense, there is no guide to its true meaning by which it could be ascertained what stocks would be included and what would not. It is only by sheer speculation it can be said that bank stock was not exempted from taxation at the local rate of levy by the Money and Credits Act of 1917, and the uncertainty of such construction is even greater with respect to the repeal act of the 1919 special session.
A few observations relative to the condition of the tax law applicable to stocks and bonds at the time of the passage of the Money and Credits Act in 1917 will demonstrate the truth of the foregoing statement. § 2102, C. L. 1913, says:
“No person shall be required to include in his statement any share or portion of the capital stock or property of any company or corporation which such company or corporation is required to list or return as its capital or property for taxation in this state.”
