Johnson Oil Refining Co v. State of Oklahoma Mitchell 8212 24

Decision Date04 December 1933
Docket NumberNos. 22,s. 22
PartiesJOHNSON OIL REFINING CO. v. STATE OF OKLAHOMA ex rel. MITCHELL, County Attorney, et al. (three cases). —24
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Appeals from the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma.

Messrs. A. A. Davidson and Preston C. West, both of Tulsa, Okl., and Charles Y. Freeman and J. F. Dammann, both of Chicago, Ill., and J. A. McCollum, of Pawnee, Okl., for petitioner.

Messrs. Ed. Waite Clark, of Pawnee, Okl., J. Berry King, Atty. Gen., Carl D. McGee, Co. Atty., of Pawnee, Okl., and F. M. Dudley, of Oklahoma City, Okl., for respondents.

Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.

These cases present the question of the validity of property taxes laid in Pawnee county, Oklahoma, under the state statute, upon the entire fleet of appellant's tank cars. The challenge in each case was under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution upon the ground that the cars did not have their situs within the state and hence that the state had no jurisdiction to tax them. The taxes in Nos. 22 and 23 were on 380 cars for the years 1925 to 1928; in No. 24, on 381 cars for the year 1931. The assessments in Nos. 22 and 23 were made by the county treasurer and upheld by the county court. In No. 24 the assessment was made by the local board of equalization and was reduced by the district court of the county to an assessment on 64 cars, which that court held to be the average number present in the county on any one day during the year. The three cases (with a fourth, which is not before us, from another county) were consolidated for hearing on appeal in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma. That court sustained the assessments on the entire fleet of cars, thus affirming the judgment of the county court and reversing the judgment of the district court. 162 Okl. 185, 19 P.(2d) 168. The cases come here on appeal.

Appellant, Johnson Oil Refining Company, is an Illinois corporation having its principal office in Chicago, and its refinery at Cleveland in Pawnee county, Oklahoma. The Supreme Court of the state reached the conclusion that all the cars had their 'taxable situs' at the latter place. As the asserted federal right turns upon the determination of the question of situs, it is our province to analyze the facts in order to apply the law, and thus to ascertain whether the conclusion of the state court has adequate support in the evidence. Beidler v. South Carolina Tax Commission, 282 U.S. 1, 8, 51 S.Ct. 54, 75 L.Ed. 131.1

The essential facts are not in dispute. The tank cars are operated in transporting refined products from appellant's factory at Cleveland, Oklahoma, to various points of delivery throughout a large part of the United States. They are almost exclusively engaged in interstate commerce. They are very infrequently used in connection with an oil plant appellant owns in Illinois. They are sometimes loaded at refineries located in states other than Oklahoma. The cars are stenciled 'When empty return to Johnson Oil Refining Company, Cleveland, Oklahoma,' or 'Johnson Refining Company, Cleveland, Oklahoma,' and with each shipment go instructions to return the car to Cleveland. The cars are thus billed back to Cleveland unless ordered to another point. At that place appellant has repair trackage which can accommodate from 12 to 15 cars for minor repairs and maintains such a stock of materials as can be utilized for repairs outside of a railroad shop. Besides the above-mentioned repair trackage, appellant has trackage at Cleveland with a capacity for about 67 cars.

The cars are almost continuously in movement. Returning to Cleveland to be reloaded, the cars remain on the tracks from twenty-four hours to ten days depending on the season of the year and the volume of products handled. They are on the tracks for reloading purposes twenty-four hours. Each of the cars makes about one and one-half trips every thirty days, that is, 'each car is loaded at the Cleveland refinery, sent to the point of delivery, returns to the Cleveland plant, is reloaded and sent out again to a point of delivery each thirty days.' Each car is outside of Pawnee county and the state of Oklahoma from twenty to twenty-nine days out of each month. It was variously estimated at the trial in No. 22 that the daily average number of cars in Pawnee county during the years 1925 to 1928 was between 37 and 66. The agreed statement of facts in No. 24 states that that daily average during the years 1929 and 1930 was 64; that is, about 16 per cent. of the cars owned by appellant were in Pawnee county and about 84 per cent., on a daily average, were 'somewhere in transit outside' of that county.

Although rolling stock, such as these cars, is employed in interstate commerce, that fact does not make it immune from a nondiscriminatory property tax in a state which can be deemed to have jurisdiction. Marye v. Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 127 U.S. 117, 123, 8 S.Ct. 1037, 32 L.Ed. 94; Pullman's Palace-Car Co. v. Pennsylvania, 141 U.S. 18, 23, 11 S.Ct. 876, 35 L.Ed. 613; American Refrigerator Transit Co. v. Hall, 174 U.S. 70, 82, 19 S.Ct. 599, 604, 43 L.Ed. 899; Union Refrigerator Transit Co. v. Lynch, 177 U.S. 149, 152, 20 S.Ct. 631, 44 L.Ed. 708; Union Tank Line v. Wright, 249 U.S. 275, 282, 39 S.Ct. 276, 63 L.Ed. 602. Appellant had its domicile in Illinois and that state had jurisdiction to tax appellant's personal property which had not acquired an actual situs elsewhere. 'The state of origin remains the permanent situs of the property, notwithstanding its occasional excursions to foreign parts.' See New York Central R.R. Co. v. Miller, 202 U.S. 584, 597, 26 S.Ct. 714, 717, 50 L.Ed. 1155; Southern Pacific Co. v. Kentucky, 222 U.S. 63, 69, 32 S.Ct. 13, 56 L.Ed. 96. But the state of the domicile has no jurisdiction to tax personal property where its actual situs is in another state....

To continue reading

Request your trial
74 cases
  • Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. County of Alameda
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court (California)
    • 8 d5 Novembro d5 1974
    ...county. (Braniff Airways v. Nebraska Board (1954) 347 U.S. 590, 600--601, 74 S.Ct. 757, 98 L.Ed. 967; Johnson Oil Co. v. Oklahoma (1933) 290 U.S. 158, 162, 54 S.Ct. 152, 78 L.Ed. 238; Pullman's Car Co. v. Pennsylvania (1891) 141 U.S. 18, 25--26, 11 S.Ct. 876, 35 L.Ed. 613; see also Zantop A......
  • Miller Bros Co v. State of Maryland
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 5 d1 Abril d1 1954
    ...1059; Hannis Distilling Co. v. Mayor and City Council, 216 U.S. 285, 30 S.Ct. 326, 54 L.Ed. 482; Johnson Oil Refining Co. v. Oklahoma ex rel. Mitchell, 290 U.S. 158, 54 S.Ct. 152, 78 L.Ed. 238; City Bank Farmers Trust Co. v. Schnader, 293 U.S. 112, 55 S.Ct. 29, 79 L.Ed. 228; Ott v. Mississi......
  • Northwest Airlines v. State of Minnesota
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 15 d1 Maio d1 1944
    ...That was the decisive feature of the Miller case, and it was deemed decisive as late as 1933 in Johnson Refining Oil Co. v. Oklahoma, 290 U.S. 158, 54 S.Ct. 152, 78 L.Ed. 238, which was strongly pressed upon us by Northwest. In that case it was not the home State, Illinois, but a foreign St......
  • Lee v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 2 d2 Janeiro d2 1940
    ...... against J. M. Lee, as Comptroller of the state of Florida,. and others contesting the validity ... . To the. same effect is Johnson Oil Refining Co. v. State of. Oklahoma, 290 ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT