Commonwealth v. Fall Brook R. Co.

• Decision Date: 17 October 1898
• Docket Number: 20
• Citation: 188 Pa. 199,41 A. 606
• Parties: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Fall Brook Railway Company, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

41 A. 606

188 Pa. 199

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Fall Brook Railway Company, Appellant

No. 20

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

October 17, 1898

Argued June 1, 1897.

Reargued February 23, 1898.

Appeal No. 20, May T., 1897, by defendant, from judgment of C.P Dauphin Co., Commonwealth Docket, 1896, No. 658, on appeal from tax settlement. Affirmed. MITCHELL, GREEN and WILLIAMS JJ., dissent.

Appeal from tax settlement.

The material facts appear by the opinion of the Supreme Court.

The case was tried by SIMONTON, P.J., without a jury, as provided by act of April 22, 1874, who determined that the commonwealth is entitled to recover from defendant in this case a tax at the rate of five mills on the dollar on $4,200,000, the actual value in cash of defendant's capital stock, with interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum, from September 30, 1896, and five per cent attorney general's commission, and judgment is directed to be entered in favor of the commonwealth and against defendant for that amount when properly calculated, if exceptions be not filed within the time limited by law.

Error assigned was the judgment of the court.

We see nothing in the evidence, which would warrant us in disturbing the judgment; the assignments of error are therefore overruled, and the judgment affirmed.

M. E Olmsted, for appellant.

John P. Elkin, deputy attorney general, with him Henry C. McCormick, attorney general, for appellee.

Before STERRETT, C.J., GREEN, WILLIAMS, McCOLLUM, MITCHELL, DEAN and FELL, JJ.

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE DEAN:

The defendant is a corporation formed by the consolidation of Pennsylvania and New York corporations, under the provisions of the act of March 24, 1865. The seventh section of the special act provides: "That a portion of the road of such consolidated company in this commonwealth and all its real estate and other property shall be subject to like taxation and assessed in the same manner and with like effect as property of other railroads within this commonwealth." Its capital stock is 100,000 shares of the par value of $50.00, making a total of $5,000,000, of which the proportion in Pennsylvania is found to be $4,200,000, there being, out of its whole length of 100 miles, about eighty-five in this state. Of its stock, 10,000 shares are preferred and 90,000 common stock. In the tax year 1895, it declared four dividends, each of one and one half per cent on its common stock, and dividends on the preferred of seven per cent. Besides, it had on hand assets, cash bills receivable, accounts, etc., $961,354.68. The funded debt of the company is $350,000. Its gross income from operations of the road, interest, rentals, etc., during the year, was $835,845.59, from which deduct operating expenses, $439,690.67, leaving a net income of $396,154.92. There were no sales of stock during the tax year. The corporate officers in their return to the commonwealth appraised the capital stock at $50.00 per share on 70,000 shares, or $3,500,000, taxable in Pennsylvania. The commonwealth's officers, being dissatisfied with this appraisement, appraised the actual value of the capital stock in Pennsylvania at $4,553,228; from this defendant appealed to the court of common pleas. The learned judge of that court, after full hearing of the evidence, appraised the actual value of the...