Ralph Ewing v. City of Leavenworth
| Citation | 57 L.Ed. 303,33 S.Ct. 157,226 U.S. 464 |
| Decision Date | 06 January 1913 |
| Docket Number | No. 66,66 |
| Parties | RALPH A. EWING, Plff. in Err., v. CITY OF LEAVENWORTH |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. Branch P. Kerfoot, George W. Field, Frank H. Platt, and John T. O'Keefe for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. Arthur M. Jackson and Benjamin F. Endres for defendant in error.
Plaintiff in error was the agent of the United States Express Company at Leavenworth, Kansas. He was convicted of violating an ordinance of the city imposing a tax on the business of express companies. The conviction was affirmed in 80 Kan. 58, 101 Pac. 664, and the case is brought here.
Under the ordinance a tax was imposed on the business and occupation of express companies as follows:
'The sum of $50 per year on the business and occupation of express company, corporation or agency, in receiving packages in this city from persons in the city, and transmitting the same by express from this city, within this state, to persons and places within this state, and receiving in this city packages by express transmitted within the state from persons and places in this state to persons within this city, and delivering the same to persons in this city, excepting the receipt, transmission, and delivery of any such packages to and from any department, agency, or agent of the United States, and excepting the receipt, transmission, and delivery of any such packages which are interstate commerce; the business and occupation of receiving, transmitting, and delivering of the packages herein excepted is not taxed hereby.'
The United States Express Company receives express packages at Leavenworth and forwards them by railroad to other cities and towns, some without the state and some within the state, and also delivers packages which have been forwarded to Leavenworth from like cities and towns. All such express packages are required to be brought into or sent out of Leavenworth, which lies west of the Missouri river in Kansas, over the Rock Island Railroad, which runs along the Missouri side of the Missouri river, with a branch across the river to Leavenworth. The express company has no other means of transportation of packages in or out of Leavenworth. It therefore follows that every package handled by the express company at Leavenworth is brought from or carried into the state of Missouri over this branch of the Rock Island Railroad. The actual carriage in the state of Kansas over such branch is about 1 mile. The record shows that about 10 per cent of the business done at Leavenworth by the express company is between Leaven- worth and other points in Kansas, but all such business is required to be transported in part, at least, within the state of Missouri.
The contention in this case is that the tax thus imposed is a regulation of and burden upon interstate commerce, and therefore in violation of the Federal Constitution, which vests in Congress the sole authority to regulate commerce among the states.
It is to be observed that the ordinance excludes interstate and government business. As the supreme court of Kansas says (80 Kan. 62):
We are of opinion that this case is controlled by Lehigh Valley R. Co. v. Pennsylvania, 145 U. S. 192, 36 L. ed. 672, 4 Inters. Com. Rep. 87, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 806, in which it was held that a state might tax the receipts of a railroad corporation for the portion of the transportation which was within the state, although...
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