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Counties Seek to Push Tax Claims Whether or not counties may collect taxes on closed banks as preferred claims or must take the same chances of getting their money as other creditors is the point at issue in two cases before Judge Charles M. Cooley, in charge of adjudicating matters with regard to closed banks, argued in district court here. The banks in question are the American State Bank of Burlington and the State Bank of Berthold, both in Ward county. The cases were prepared by Ward county authorities but were argued here by Tax Commissioner T. H. H. Thoresen, who entered the case because of his desire to have the question adjudicated. It has never been decided before, Thoresen said, and is of far-reaching importance, since it will determine the right of the state and various political subdivisions to collect taxes owing to them by banks at the time the institutions closed. In the two cases in question considerable amounts of delinquent taxes are involved. L. R. Baird, receiver of state banks,