Bankers Pocahontas Coal Co v. Burnet

• Decision Date: 05 December 1932
• Docket Number: No. 104,104
• Citation: 53 S.Ct. 150,77 L.Ed. 325,287 U.S. 308
• Parties: BANKERS' POCAHONTAS COAL CO. v. BURNET, Commissioner of Internal Revenue
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

287 U.S. 308

53 S.Ct. 150

77 L.Ed. 325

BANKERS' POCAHONTAS COAL CO.

v BURNET, Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

No. 104.

Argued Nov. 18, 1932.

Decided Dec. 5, 1932.

Messrs. Camden R. McAtee, of Washington, D.C., and Wells Goodykoontz, of Williamson, W. Va., for petitioner.

The Attorney General and Mr. G. A. Youngquist, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

Mr. Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, in 1912, acquired West Virginia coal lands in fee, and, by assignment from the prior owners, certain leases or contracts entered into by them with various coal operators, by which the latter acquired the right to enter upon and use the lands for the production of coal and coke for a specified period, in consideration of stipulated royalties for the coal and coke produced, including minimum royalty payments in each year. In determining petitioner's income and profits taxes for the years 1920 to 1926, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue treated the royalty payments, after deducting a depletion allowance of 3.6 cents per ton of coal mined, as taxable income of petitioner, and assessed a corresponding increase in the tax. On appeal, this ruling of the Commissioner was sustained, both by the Board of Tax Appeals, 18 B.T.A. 901, and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 55 F.(2d) 626. We granted certiorari, 287 U.S. 584, 53 S.Ct. 11, 77 L.Ed. —-, on a petition which assails the judgment below on three grounds, which will be separately considered.

First. It is insisted that no part of the royalties is taxable income of petitioner. Petitioner rests this contention on what is stated to be a rule of law of West Virginia, that under coal leases, like those presently involved, the title to the coal, in place, passes to the lessee or operator immediately on execution of the lease. From this it is argued that the royalties received, were but payments for capital assets acquired and sold before the adoption of the Sixteenth Amendment, and that their taxation as income is not authorized either by the statute or by the Sixteenth Amendment, because not apportioned.

The question whether payments of bonus and royalties from the lessee to the lessor of an oil lease are income within the meaning of the revenue laws taxing income, or a return of capital as upon a sale of the oil, was recently before this Court in Burnet v. Harmel, 287 U.S. 103, 53 S.Ct. 74, 77 L.Ed. 199, decided November 7, 1932. Although it was contended there, as it is here, that by state law the title to the mineral content of the leased land passed to the lessee upon execution of the lease, it was held that this characterization of the transaction in the local law did not affect the conclusion that the payments were gross income subject to tax, after the deductions allowed by the taxing act. The considerations which led to the conclusion that bonus and royalties paid to the lessor of Texas oil lands are taxable income and not a conversion of capital, as upon a sale of capital assets, are equally applicable to West Virginia coal leases, whether the title to the coal in place passes to the lessee at the date of the lease, or only upon severance by the lessee.

The applicable statutes thus construed and applied to not tax any part of petitioner's capital investment before March 1, 1913. Section 234(a)(9) of the Revenue Act of 1918, c. 18, 40 Stat. 1057, 1077, and regulations under it, require depletion allowances upon bonus and royalty payments received by the lessor of mineral lands, sufficient to provide for a return in full of his invested capital. The provisions of that section, and the related Treasury Regulations have been continued with the later revenue acts, see Murphy Oil Co. v. Burnet, 287 U.S. 299, 53 S.Ct. 161, 77 L.Ed. 318, decided this day. The fact that the depletion allowance under the Revenue Act of 1913 (38 Stat. 114) was more limited is not pertinent here. Burnet v. Thompson Oil & Gas Co., 283 U.S. 301, 51 S.Ct. 418, 75 L.Ed. 1049.

Second. In a suit brought by the petitioner in the District Court for Northern West Virginia, Bankers' Pocahontas Coal Co. v. White, Collector of Internal Revenue, with respect to taxes for the years 1914 to 1919, it was held that petitioner was entitled to a depletion allowance on royalties received from the leases involved in the present suit, of 5 cents per ton of coal mined. It is insisted that the decision in that case was res adjudicata of that issue, and that, in flxing the depletion allowance of the present case at 3.6 cents per ton, the court below and the Board of Tax Appeals erroneously refused to follow the decision of the District Court in the earlier case. With respect to this contention it is sufficient to say that the suit in the District Court was not against the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the respondent here, but against the collector, judgment against whom is not res...