Kansas City, M. & BR Co. v. Stiles

• Decision Date: 04 December 1916
• Docket Number: No. 212.,212.
• Citation: 242 U.S. 111
• Parties: KANSAS CITY, MEMPHIS & BIRMINGHAM RAILROAD COMPANY v. STILES.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

242 U.S. 111

KANSAS CITY, MEMPHIS & BIRMINGHAM RAILROAD COMPANY v. STILES.

No. 212.

Supreme Court of United States.

Submitted October 17, 1916.

Decided December 4, 1916.

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ALABAMA.

Mr. Forney Johnston and Mr. W.F. Evans for plaintiff in error.

Mr. William L. Martin, Attorney General of the State of Alabama, and Mr. Lawrence E. Brown, Assistant Attorney General of the State of Alabama, for defendant in error.

MR. JUSTICE DAY delivered the opinion of the court.

The Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad Company, plaintiff in error herein (hereinafter called the Railroad Company), filed its complaint in the City Court of Birmingham, Alabama, against James P. Stiles, Probate Judge of Jefferson County, Alabama, whereby it sought to recover sundry sums of money, aggregating $2,434.40, paid to Stiles by virtue of the provisions of § 12 of an act of the Alabama Legislature, entitled "An Act to further provide for the revenues of the State of Alabama." By this act it is provided that corporations organized under the laws of Alabama shall pay an annual franchise tax as follows: where the paid-up capital stock does not exceed $50,000, one dollar per thousand of such paid-up capital stock; where paid-up capital stock is more than $50,000 and up to $1,000,000, one dollar per thousand on the first $50,000, and fifty cents for each thousand of the remainder; where paid-up capital stock is more than $1,000,000 and up to $5,000,000, one dollar per thousand on the first $50,000, and fifty cents per thousand for the next $950,000, and twenty-five cents per thousand for the remainder; where the paid-up capital stock exceeds $5,000,000, one dollar per thousand on the first $50,000, fifty cents per thousand on the next $950,000, twenty-five cents per thousand on the next $4,000,000, and ten cents per thousand on the remainder; and that corporations organized under the laws of any other State and doing business within the State of Alabama shall pay annually franchise tax as above, based, however, on the actual amount of capital employed in the State of Alabama. The act also contains provisions not relevant to this action and not necessary to be set forth here.

The Railroad Company is a consolidated corporation, existing by virtue of the consolidation, under concurrent acts of the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, of three independent and distinct railroad corporations created by and formerly operating solely within the respective States named. As regards this consolidation, plaintiff avers —

"that it is a consolidated corporation, made up and consisting of the consolidation of three distinct and separate corporations, under the following circumstances: A railroad corporation organized and existing solely under the laws of the State of Tennessee, acquired, constructed, owned and operated all of that part of plaintiff's line and railway situated within the State of Tennessee; a separate and distinct railroad corporation, organized and existing solely under the laws of the State of Mississippi, acquired, constructed, owned and operated all that part of plaintiff's line and railway situated within the State of Mississippi; and a separate and distinct railroad corporation, organized and existing solely under the laws of the State of Alabama, acquired, constructed, owned and operated all that part of plaintiff's line and railway situated within the State of Alabama. Plaintiff avers that said separate railroad corporations, being desirous of operating said distinct and separately owned properties as a single system, for the conduct of the business of a common carrier in interstate commerce, as well as the continuation of intrastate commerce within said several States, before the period mentioned or involved herein, and by virtue of concurrent or contemporaneous laws or special acts of said several States, including the States of Tennessee and Mississippi, as well as the State of Alabama, consolidated themselves into a corporation known as Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad Company, the plaintiff herein, and, in pursuance of the laws of each of said States, duly filed therein agreements and instruments consolidating said companies, and complying with the laws of each of said States authorizing the same. And plaintiff avers that by said consolidation the shares of stock of said several companies were surrendered by the holders thereof and in lieu thereof there were issued the shares of stock of said consolidated company, the plaintiff herein — being the capital stock of plaintiff issued and outstanding as aforesaid. Plaintiff further avers that the capital stock on which said franchise tax was estimated and exacted as aforesaid was and is the capital stock issued and outstanding under the circumstances aforesaid, although less than one-half thereof was issued in lieu of the stock of or represents the property or assets or business of the Alabama corporation which became a constituent of the plaintiff by consolidation as aforesaid."

The entire capital stock of the consolidated Railroad Company amounted to $5,976,000.00, and it was upon this entire amount that the Company was assessed. By this action the Railroad Company seeks to recover the full amount of the franchise tax exacted upon that basis, and contends that in any event it should have been assessed only upon that part of the capital employed by it in the State of Alabama.

The Railroad Company averred, if it was required to pay the franchise tax in question upon its entire capital, that it would be paying another and different rate of taxation, or another and different amount of franchise tax, from that which is required of like corporations doing business in Alabama, contrary to the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution that no State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws; that the enforcement of the act by subjecting to its operation the Railroad Company's property in other States constituted a taking of its property without due process of law; and that said act imposed a direct burden upon interstate commerce in requiring it to pay, in addition to all other fees and taxes provided by law, a tax upon its capital stock for the right and privilege of transacting and carrying on its interstate business as a common carrier, in violation of clause three of § 8, Article I of the Federal...