Armour Co v. Commonwealth of Virginia
| Decision Date | 04 March 1918 |
| Docket Number | No. 127,127 |
| Citation | 62 L.Ed. 547,38 S.Ct. 267,246 U.S. 1 |
| Parties | ARMOUR & CO. v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
[Syllabus from 1-2 intentionally omitted] Mr. Eppa Hunton, Jr., of Richmond, Va., for plaintiff in error.
Mr. J. D. Hank, Jr., of Richmond, Va., for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[Argument of Council on pages 2-3 intentionally omitted.]
This suit concerns section 45 of the Virginia general taxing statute (Acts Extra Sess. 1902-04, c. 148) as amended in 1915, which is in the margin.1 It will be observed that the section imposes an annual license tax upon all persons or corporations carrying on a merchandise business at any place in the state, the amount being determined by the sum of the purchases during the year. It will be further seen that the amount of the purchases includes 'all goods, wares and merchandise manufactured by such merchant and sold or offered for sale, in this state, as merchandise,' and that the section also contains a provision excluding from the operation of the license 'manufacturers taxed on capital by this state, who offer for sale at the place of manufacture, goods, wares and merchandise manufactured by them.'
Armour & Co., a New Jersey corporation engaged in the packing house business, and having various establishments in several states, carried on in Virginia the merchandise business of selling packing house products at the respective agencies which they had established. For the purposes of the merchant's license in question the company was called upon to return the sum of its purchases including the amount shipped into the state for sale at its agencies whether or not manufactured by it. The corporation declined to comply and commenced this suit to enjoin the enforcement of the statute in so far as it required the inclusion in the amount of purchases of merchandise manufactured by the corporation in other states and shipped into Virginia for sale. It was charged that to the extent stated the statute was in conflict with the Constitution of the United States because of the provision excluding from liability for license persons who manufactured merchandise in Virginia and sold the same at the place of manufacture for the following reasons: (a) Because as the result of such exclusion the statute discriminated against the company to the extent that it shipped goods manufactured by it into Virginia to be sold and therefore was a direct burden on interstate commerce; (b) because the statute deprived manufacturers in other states of the benefit of section 2 of article 4 guaranteeing to the citizens of each state 'all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states'; and (c) because the statute in the respects stated was repugnant to the equal protection and privilege and immunities clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The trial court enjoined the enforcement of the statute to the extent complained of and its action on appeal was reversed by the court below. It was held that the statute was inherently within the state legislative power and that the difference between a manufacturer selling goods by him made at the place where they were manufactured and one engaged in a mercantile business even if his business consisted in whole or in part of the selling of goods by him manufactured at a place other than the place of manufacture was such as to afford adequate ground for their distinct classification and hence justified the provision of the statute including one in the merchant's license and excluding the other. In addition, construing the statute, it was decided that it was not discriminatory since the exclusion from the license tax of manufacturers selling at their place of manufacture was open to all whether noncitizens or even nonresidents who manufactured in Virginia and because the liability for the merchant's license embraced even those who manufactured in Virginia if they sold as merchants the goods by them manufactured at a place other than the place of manufacture. From this latter conclusion it was decided that if any disadvantage resulted to the person selling as a merchant in Virginia goods manufactured by him in another state by subjecting him to a license when such license did not include the manufacturer selling in Virginia at the place of manufacture, the disadvantage was a mere indirect consequence of a lawful and nondiscriminatory exercise of state authority and afforded no basis...
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