v. Merriam, 10 Neb. 199; Hunt v. Esterday, 10 Neb. 165; Wood v. Helmer, 10 Neb. 65; Fifield v. Marinette County, 62 Wis. 532; Railroad Co. y. Lincoln Co., 67 Wis. 478; Smith v. Commissioners, 9 Kan. 296. Injunction or other appropriate relief lies in favor of a plaintiff in all cases where such defects have occurred in the levy or assessment of the tax as go to its substance, and are not mere informalities or irregularities; or the plaintiff does not concede that the tax or any part thereof is equitably due the defendant, and it does not clearly appear that it is due, the reason being, in the first instance, that the tax is void, and hence defendant has no “equity” to receive it, and in the second that plaintiff is under no obligation to pay a tax not clearly due. Huntington v. Central Pacific Railroad Co., 3 Sawy. 503; Tilton v. Oregon Railroad Co., 3 Sawy. 22; Jenkins v. Supervisors, 15 Wis. 12; Mitchell v. City of Milwaukee, 18 Wis. 99; Crane v. City of Janesville, 20 Wis. 305; Hamilton v. Fond du Lac, 25 Wis. 490; Hassen v. City of Rochester, 67 N. Y. 529; Folkerty y. Powers, 3 N. W. Rep. 857; Dean vy. Madison, 9 Wis. 402; Scott v. Onderdonk, 14 N. Y. 9; Hatch v. Buffalo, 38 N. Y. 276; Allen v. City of Buffalo, 39 N. Y. 386; Sewall v. City of St Paul, 20 Minn. 511; Marion County v. Barker, 25 Kan. 258; Cartwright v. McFadden, 24 Kan. 662; Myrick v. La Crosse, 17 Wis. 442.
The “Gross Earnings Law” exempted from taxation all property lawfully owned and held by the plaintiff, whether used in the operation of its line of railroad or not. But if the statute had gone no further than to declare that the capital stock of the plaintiff should be exempt, all its property would have been exempt. Scotland County v. Railroad Co., 65 Mo. 123; Railroad Co. v. Shacklett, 30 Mo. 550; Baltimore v. Railroad Co., 6 Gill. 288; Railroad Co. vy. Mayor, 14 Ga. 275; New Haven v. City Bank, 31 Conn. 106; Commissioners v. Railroad, 47 Md. 592; Bibb Co. v. Central Road Co., 40 Ga. 646; Bank Tax Case, 2 Wall 200. In the absence of constitutional inhibition the power to make a law like the one in question, commuting taxes on the payment of a certain sum, is undoubted. Daughdrill v. Insurance Co., 31 Ala. 91; State v. Railroad Co., 45 Md. 351; Worth v. Railroad Co., 89 N. C. 291; Piqua Bank v. Knoop, 16
