Graniteville Mfg Co v. Query

• Decision Date: 18 May 1931
• Docket Number: No. 596,596
• Citation: 283 U.S. 376,51 S.Ct. 515,75 L.Ed. 1126
• Parties: GRANITEVILLE MFG. CO. v. QUERY et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

283 U.S. 376

51 S.Ct. 515

75 L.Ed. 1126

GRANITEVILLE MFG. CO.

v QUERY et al.

No. 596.

Argued April 27, 1931.

Decided May 18, 1931.

Mr. P. F. Henderson, of Aiken, S. C., for appellant.

Mr. Chief Justice HUGHESdelivered the opinion of the Court.

The Graniteville Manufacturing Company, a corporation of South Carolina, brought this suit in the District Court of the United States to restrain the collection of certain stamp taxes imposed upon its promissory notes under Act No. 574, p. 1089, of the Acts of 1928 of that State.¹A motion for an interlocutory injunction was heard by three judges, as required by section 266 of the Judicial Code(U. S. C., tit. 28, § 380(28 USCA § 380)).Holding that the plaintiff had no adequate remedy at law, the court granted an injunction with respect to notes made outside the state, but denied relief as to notes which were signed within the state.44 F.(2d) 64.

There is no controversy as to the facts, which were stipulated and found by the court substantially as follows:

'These notes were executed at various times from July 24, 1923, to March 12, 1930.The notes were all payable to banks, at their banking houses, respectively, outside of South Carolina; none of them being located or doing any business within that state.The custom and practice between the plaintiff and each of the banks was that in each instance, at the office of the bank, a line of credit was first established; that is, an agreement was made that the plaintiff's borrowing from the bank should never exceed a certain amount, each specific loan to be made thereafter being subject to acceptance by the bank.When a loan was desired, the bank having been notified that a loan would be desired at a certain date and an inquiry having been made of it as to the then existing discount rate, the note would be signed by the president or other executive officer of the plaintiff, and forwarded to the bank by mail.The note was subject to withdrawal and revocation by the plaintiff until it was actually received and accepted by the bank and the proceeds actually placed to the credit of the plaintiff in the bank.* * * Payment of the note was made to the bank at its banking house by the plaintiff sending checks from its office at Graniteville upon other banks; and when the note was paid, it was marked paid, or canceled, and returned to the plaintiff at Graniteville, S. C., and there kept. * * *

'The foregoing facts apply to all of the notes; but with reference to the place where the notes were signed, they may be divided into two classes.Prior to December 1, 1924, the plaintiff's executive officers resided in Angusta, Ga., and all of its notes, up to that time, were signed by its executive officers in Augusta, Ga., and mailed from there to banks outside of South Carolina, and those notes were never in the state of South Carolina until after they were paid and returned to the plaintiff at its office at Graniteville, S. C.But after December 1, 1924, plaintiff's executive officers resided at Graniteville, S. C., and the notes executed subsequent to that time were signed by those officers at Graniteville, S. C., placed in the mail there for delivery to the bank outside of South Carolina, and, upon payment, were later returned to the plaintiff at Graniteville, S. C.'

It is only as to the latter class of notes which were signed in South Carolina that the...