Attorney General of Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Western Union Tel Co

• Decision Date: 11 May 1891
• Citation: 35 L.Ed. 628,11 S.Ct. 889,141 U.S. 40
• Parties: ATTORNEY GENERAL OF COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS v. WESTERN UNION TEL. CO., (three cases.)
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

141 U.S. 40

11 S.Ct. 889

35 L.Ed. 628

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS v. WESTERN UNION TEL. CO., (three cases.)

May 11, 1891.

H. C. Bliss, Dy. Atty. Gen., for the Commonwealth.

Wager Swayne, for defendant.

GRAY, J.

Three informations in equity were filed in the supreme judicial court of Massachusettes by the attorney general at the relation of the treasurer of the commonwealth, against the Western Union Telegraph Company, a corporation of New York, under section 54 of chapter 13 of the Public Statutes of Massachusetts, for the recovery of taxes assessed to the defendant for the years, 1886, 1887, and 1888 under other sections of that chapter, and interest thereon at the rate of 12 per cent. a year until paid, and for an injunction against the defendant's prosecution of its business until payment of such taxes and interest. Upon petition of the defendant, alleging that the matter in dispute arose under the constitution and laws of the United States, the three suits were removed into the circuit court of the United States, and were there heard upon pleadings and proofs, and decrees entered for the amounts of the taxes and interest, deducting certain sums paid into court by the defendant, and granting no injunction. Both parties appealed to this court. These cases cannot be distinguished from that of Telegraph Co. v. Massachusetts, 125 U. S. 530, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 961, in which the validity of similar taxes was upheld in a judgment delivered by Mr. Justice MILLER, with no dissent. The constitution of Massachusetts, c. 1, § 1, art. 4, empowers the legislature 'to impose and levy proportional and reasonable assessments, rates, and taxes upon all the inhabitants of, and persons resident and estates lying within, the said commonwealth; and also to impose and levy reasonable duties and excises upon any produce, goods, wares, merchan- dise, and commodities whatsoever, brought into, produced, manufactured, or being within the same.' 1 Charters and Constitutions, 961. The statutes pursuant to which the taxes now in question were assessed and sought to be collected are set forth in full in 125 U. S. 531-534, note, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 961, and the material provisions of them are as follows: By section 38 'every corporation chartered by the commonwealth or organized under the general laws for purposes of business or profit, having a capital stock divided into shares,' (with certain exceptions,) shall annually return to the tax commissionera l ist of its shareholders and the number of shares belonging to each, the amount of its capital stock, the par value and market value of the shares, and the locality and value of its real estate and machinery subject to local taxation within the commonwealth; and 'railroad and telegraph companies shall return the whole length of their lines, and the length of so much of their lines as is without the commonwealth.' By section 39 the tax commissioner shall ascertain the true market value of the shares of each corporation, and estimate the fair cash valuation of all the shares constituting its capital stock, and shall also ascertain and determine the value of its real estate and machinery subject to local taxation, and of the deductions provided in section 40. By section 40 'every corporation embraced in the provisions of section thirty-eight shall annually pay a tax upon its corporate franchise at a valuation thereof equal to the aggregate value of the shares in its capital stock as determined in the preceding section, after making the deductions provided for in this section, at a rate determined by an apportionment of the whole amount of money to be raised by taxation upon property in the commonwealth during the same current year,' 'upon the aggregate valuation of all the cities and towns for the preceding year.' 'From the valuation ascertained and determined as aforesaid there shall be deducted First, in case of railroad and telegraph companies whose lines extend beyond the limits of the commonwealth, such portion of the whole valuation of their capital stock, ascertained as aforesaid, as is proportional to the length of that part of their line lying without the commonwealth, and also an amount equal to the value, as determined by the tax commissioner, of their real estate and machinery located and subject to local taxation within the commonwealth: second, in case of other corporations, included in section thirty-eight of this chapter, an amount equal to the value, as determined by the tax commissioner, of their real estate and machinery subject to local taxation, wherever situated.' By section 42 'every corporation or association chartered or organized elsewhere which owns, or controls and uses, under lease or otherwise, a line of telegraph within this commonwealth,' shall make all the returns prescribed by section 38 excepting the list of shareholders, 'and shall annually pay a tax at the same rate, and to be ascertained and determined in the same manner,' as is provided in section 40. By section 54 taxes assessed under sections 40 and 42 may be recovered, 'with interest at the rate of twelve per cent. per annum until the same are paid,' by action in the name of the treasurer of the commonwealth, or by information at his relation in the supreme judicial court. It is to be remembered that by the tax act of Massachusetts 'taxes on real estate shall be assessed in the city or town where the estate lies;' and 'all machinery employed in any branch of manufacture shall be assessed where such machinery is situated or...