Anniston Mfg. Co. v. Davis
Decision Date | 08 January 1937 |
Docket Number | 8186.,No. 8175,8175 |
Citation | 87 F.2d 773 |
Parties | ANNISTON MFG. CO. v. DAVIS, Collector of Internal Revenue. LINCOLN MILLS OF ALABAMA v. SAME. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Sutherland, Tuttle & Brennan, of Washington, D. C. (W. A. Sutherland and Joseph B. Brennan, both of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellant.
John M. Slaton, of Atlanta, Ga., amicus curiæ for appellant.
M. H. Eustace, Sp. Asst. to the Atty. Gen., and Jim C. Smith, U. S. Atty., of Birmingham, Ala., for appellee.
Frank E. Spain and H. H. Grooms, both of Birmingham, Ala., for appellant.
W. W. Bankhead, of Jasper, Ala., amicus curiæ for appellant.
M. H. Eustace, Sp. Asst. to the Atty. Gen., and Jim C. Smith, U. S. Atty., of Birmingham, Ala., for appellee.
Before FOSTER, HUTCHESON, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.
Actions against the collector for refunds of cotton processing and floor stock taxes, paid by appellants under the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act1; these suits were brought before and heard on demurrers after the enactment of the Revenue Act of June 22, 1936.2 This act adopted and purportedly made adequate provision as to amounts collected under the Agricultural Adjustment Act for the administrative and judicial enforcement of the principle given authoritative sanction in United States v. Jefferson Electric Co., 291 U.S. 386, 54 S.Ct. 443, 78 L.Ed. 859, that refunds of taxes illegally collected might properly be limited to those as to which the taxpayer could show that he bore the burden of the tax; that is, that the tax was really exacted from him, and not through him from others.
The act in question makes comprehensive provisions to attain the end desired, that sums collected and paid out by the government as taxes under congressional sanction, to carry out a plan esteemed to be for the general welfare, should not be paid back to those who were merely conduits through which the stream of public contributions to the plan were poured into the Treasury. These are the controlling provisions of the act as they are adequately summed up in the government's brief:
Thus it appears that as to processing taxes the consent of the United States to be sued in the District Court is completely withdrawn. Such court review as is provided for as to these is in the Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court for errors of law. As to other tax refund claims still suable in the District Court new and different prerequisites to suit are provided.
Neither of the appellants alleged conformity with the act; indeed, both, setting it at naught, undertook to sue in spite of it. Responding to appellee's motions to dismiss for want of jurisdiction, and his demurrers to their petitions, that they stated no cause of action, each took the position that the act was without effect as to causes of action, accrued and suits begun against the collector before its passage.
This position was supported by rather feebly urging that the act did not purport to, it did not, affect claims already accrued, and already in suit, and by urging firmly and with confidence that, if it did, it would be in violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, as depriving them of their vested right to sue the collector for wrongs done them by him. The District Judge thought the Jefferson Electric Co. Case controlling. He sustained defendant's demurrers, and, plaintiffs declining to plead further, dismissed their actions. Both plaintiffs are here vigorously attacking his rulings and orders.
The arguments orally and in the briefs took wide range, but they all were concerned with, they came down at last to, the power of the Congress to subject plaintiffs' claims to the refund provisions of the June 1936 act. For it too plainly appeared to be contested, indeed, it was in effect conceded, that that act was intended to, and, if valid, did, prevent the maintenance of the suits plaintiffs had brought.
It is not claimed here, as indeed it could not be, that the act was not effective to withdraw the consent of the United States to be claimed against and sued, and therefore all right to maintain a suit against it for refunds, except under and in strict accordance with the conditions the act prescribes. Smallwood v. Gallardo, 275 U.S. 56, 48 S.Ct. 23, 72 L.Ed. 152; Tucker v. Alexander, 275 U.S. 228, 48 S.Ct. 45, 72 L.Ed. 253; United States v. Clarke, 8 Pet. 436, 8 L.Ed. 1001; Lynch v. United States, 292 U.S. 571, 54 S.Ct. 840, 78 L.Ed. 1434; Dismuke v. United States, 297 U.S. 167, 56 S.Ct. 400, 80 L.Ed. 561; United States v. Michel, 282 U.S. 656, 51 S.Ct. 284, 75 L.Ed. 598; The Collector v. Hubbard, 12 Wall. 1, 20 L.Ed. 272...
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