Banker Brothers Company v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
| Citation | 56 L.Ed. 168,32 S.Ct. 38,222 U.S. 210 |
| Decision Date | 04 December 1911 |
| Docket Number | No. 72,72 |
| Parties | BANKER BROTHERS COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. Edward J. Kent and Henry A. Miller for plaintiff in error.
Messrs. George H. Calvert, James M. Magee, Donald Thompson, Murdoch Kendrick, and John C. Bell for defendant in error.
[Argument of Counsel from page 211 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Lamar delivered the opinion of the court:
The Banker Brothers Company, a corporation doing business in Pittsburg, was charged, as retail vendors, with a tax of 1 per cent on $351,000 on sales of automobiles to persons in Pennsylvania, under a statute of that state. It denied liability on the ground that the sales were interstate transactions. A decision of that point involves the question as to whether Banker Brothers Company acted as principal or as agent of a New York manufacturer.
It appears that the George N. Pierce Company was engaged in the business of manufacturing automobiles in Buffalo, and in 1905 made a contract by which it agreed
The Banker Brothers Company kept no machines in stock except those used for demonstration, and were allowed to sell only within a restricted territory on terms stipulated by the manufacturer. The purchaser of the machine was to pay at least 10 per cent when he signed a printed form addressed to Banker Brothers Company, requesting it 'to enter my order for _____ motor car, for which I agree to pay the list price, f. o. b. factory, as follows: $_____ upon signing this order, and the balance upon delivery of the car to me.'
The name of the Pierce Company did not appear anywhere on this printed form furnished by it, but when the Banker Brothers Company accepted the order, it remitted the cash to the Pierce Company. If the latter accepted the order, it agreed thereupon to make the automobile and ship it, drawing on Banker Brothers Company for the balance of the list price, less 20 per cent, with bill of lading attached. The Banker Brothers Company, on paying the draft, took up the bill of lading, received from the carrier an automobile which, though shipped in interstate commerce, had become at rest in the state of Pennsylvania. Banker Brothers Company had the title, and delivered it to the buyer on his paying the balance of the purchase money. Compare Dozier v. Alabama, 218 U. S. 124, 54 L. ed. 965, 28 L.R.A.(N.S.) 264, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 649. The written contract was silent on the subject, but it was stipulated that the Pierce Company warranted the machine direct to the purchaser.
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