First Nat Bank of Gulfport, Miss v. Adams, 136

• Decision Date: 10 April 1922
• Docket Number: No. 136,136
• Citation: 258 U.S. 362,66 L.Ed. 661,42 S.Ct. 323
• Parties: FIRST NAT. BANK OF GULFPORT, MISS., v. ADAMS, Revenue Agent of State of Mississippi
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

258 U.S. 362

42 S.Ct. 323

66 L.Ed. 661

FIRST NAT. BANK OF GULFPORT, MISS.,

v ADAMS, Revenue Agent of State of Mississippi.

No. 136.

Argued and Submitted March 2, 1922.

Decided April 10, 1922.

Mr. Wm. H. Watkins, of Jackson, Miss., for petitioner.

Mr. J. B. Harris, of Jackson, Miss., for respondent.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner is a national bank located at Gulfport, Harrison county, Miss. The state revenue agent instructed the tax collector for that county as follows:

'The following described property, in said county, to wit: Capital stock, surplus, undivided profits, and any and all other property properly assessable to banks, amounting to $75,150, belonging to and owned by First National Bank of Gulfport has escaped taxation during each of the years of 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1907, by reason of not being assessed.

'You are, by virtue of the Annotated Code of Mississippi of 1906, chapter 131, section 4740, now notified and required to, within ten days hereafter, make the proper assessment of said property by way of an additional assessment, on the roll or tax list in your hands, and to give ten days' notice in writing to said First National Bank, whose property is so assessed, and also notify in writing the board of supervisors of said county of said assessment.'

In obedience to this instruction, the collector entered upon the rolls of his office an assessment to the bank in these words:

'Amount of all other personal property not otherwise mentioned, $174,000.'

Objection was duly offered upon the ground that the corporation was assessed, and not the stockholders, as required by section 5219, Revised Statutes of the United States (Comp. St. § 9784). The Harrison county circuit court overruled this and directed the board of supervisors——- 'to assess the First National Bank of Gulfport, Mississippi, with capital stock, surplus, undivided profits, and any and all property assessable to said bank, in the sum of $75,150, for the years 1903, 1906, and 1907, which said property was at said time owned by said First National Bank, and which had escaped taxation for each of the years as hereinbefore set out; and said board of supervisors is hereby directed to make such assessment by way of additional assessment on the roll and tax list of Harrison county, Mississippi.'

The Supreme Court of the state approved this judgment. See State Revenue Agent v. Bank, 108 Miss. 346, 66 South. 407; Adams v. First National Bank of Gulfport, 116 Miss. 450, 77 South. 195; First National Bank of Gulfport v. Adams, 123 Miss. 279, 85 South 308.

Section 5219¹ Revised Statutes (copied below), prescribes the full measure of the power of the several states to impose taxes upon national banking associations or their stockholders. Any assessment not in conformity therewith is unauthorized and invalid. Bank of California v. Richardson, 248 U. S. 476, 483, 39 Sup. Ct. 165, 63 L. Ed. 372...