Gallardo v. Santini Fertilizer Company

• Decision Date: 24 October 1927
• Docket Number: No. 164,164
• Citation: Gallardo v. Santini Fertilizer Company, 275 U.S. 62, 48 S.Ct. 24, 72 L.Ed. 157 (1927)
• Parties: Juan G. GALLARDO, Appellant, v. SANTINI FERTILIZER COMPANY
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

275 U.S. 62

48 S.Ct. 24

72 L.Ed. 157

Juan G. GALLARDO, Appellant,

v SANTINI FERTILIZER COMPANY.

No. 164.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued Oct. 5, 1927.

October 24, 1927

Mr. William Cattron Rigby, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Mr. Nelson Gammans, of New York City, for appellee.

Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a bill in equity brought in the District Court of Porto Rico to restrain the collection of taxes imposed by the laws of Porto Rico. An injunction was issued by the District Court, on March 31, 1925. On April 7, 1925, an appeal was allowed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. That court at first made a decree reversing the decree of the District Court, but later, on December 18, 1926, set that decree aside and transferred the case to this court, under the Act of September 14, 1922, c. 305, 42 Stat. 837 (Comp. St. § 1215a), conceiving that the jurisdiction of the District Court was invoked solely upon the ground that the controversy involved the construction or application of the Constitution of the United States. On March 4, 1927, the Act of Congress (48 USCA § 872) was passed that took away the jurisdiction of the District Court in this class of cases, as explained in Smallwood v. Gallardo, 275 U. S. 56, 48 S. Ct. 23, 72 L. Ed. 152.

The case has been argued upon the merits and also upon a motion to remand it to the Circuit Court of Appeals on the ground that the appeal properly was taken to the court. As the...