Heisler v. Thomas Colliery Co

• Citation: 67 L.Ed. 237,260 U.S. 245,43 S.Ct. 83
• Decision Date: 27 November 1922
• Docket Number: No. 541,541
• Parties: HEISLER v. THOMAS COLLIERY CO. et al
• Court: United States Supreme Court

260 U.S. 245

43 S.Ct. 83

67 L.Ed. 237

HEISLER

v THOMAS COLLIERY CO. et al.

No. 541.

Argued Nov. 14 and 15, 1922.

Decided Nov. 27, 1922.

Messrs. Louis Marshall, of New York City, and H. S. Drinker, Jr., of Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 246 intentionally omitted] Mr. George E. Alter, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for defendants in error.

Mr. J. Weston Allen, of Boston, Mass., on behalf of nine States, amicus curiae.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 247-253 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice McKENNA delivered the opinion of the Court.

In 1913 the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by an act of its General Assembly (Act June 17, 1913 [P. L. 639]), imposed a tax of 2 1/2 per cent. upon anthracite coal, and provided for the distribution of the tax.

The act was adjudged a violation of the Constitution of the commonwealth, which required uniformity of taxation. Commonwealth v. Alden Coal Co., 251 Pa. 134, 96 Atl. 246, L. R. A. 1916F, 154, and Commonwealth v. St. Clair, 251 Pa. 159, 96 Atl. 254.

In 1921 the commonwealth passed the act here involved (Act May 11, 1921 [P. L. 479]). It provided that from and after its passage each ton of anthracite coal mined, 'washed or screened, or otherwise prepared for market' in the commonwealth should be 'subject to a tax of 1 1/2 per cent. of the value thereof when prepared for market.' It was provided that the tax should be assessed at the time when the coal has been subjected to the indicated preparation 'and is ready for shipment or market.'

Plaintiff in error, alleging himself to be a stockholder of the Thomas Colliery Company, brought this suit to have the act adjudged and decreed to be unconstitutional and void, and to ejoin that company and its directors from complying with the act, and to enjoin defendant in error, Samuel L. Lewis, Auditor General of the Commonwealth, and the defendant in error, Charles A. Snyder, Treasurer of the commonwealth, from enforcing the act.

The trial court, court of common pleas, decided against the relief prayed, distinguishing the case from those in which the act of 1913 was declared void, and adjudged and decreed that the suit be dismissed. The ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the state. The case is here on writ of error to that action.

The bill in the case, as far as we are concerned with it, assails the act of 1921 as offensive to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, in that it denies to the Thomas Colliery Company, and other owners and operators of anthracite mines, the equal protection of the laws because it taxes such owners and anthracite coal, and does not tax the owners of bituminous mines and bituminous coal. The ultimate foundation of the contention is that anthracite coal and bituminous coal are fuels, and necessarily, therefore, must be associated in the same class for taxation, in disregard or in diminution of whatever other differences may exist between them in composition, qualities or uses, and that not to so associate them is arbitrary and unreasonable, having the consequences of inequality and illegality, and, therefore, within the ban of the Constitution of the United States.

The contention, therefore, concerntrates attention upon the consideration of what resemblances or differences in objects justify their inclusion in, or their exclusion from, a particular class.

It would be commonplace and wearisome to enlarge much upon the principle that presides in and determines the classification of objects. It is too necessary and too familiar in the affairs of life. We cannot go far in thought or practice without its exercise. It is the process of considering objects together or in separation as determined by their properties or some of them, and the purpose we have in hand. If the properties and purpose have relation, the process is logically justified.

Illustrations readily occur. A farmer will classify plants differently from a botanist, but the classification of both may, notwithstanding the difference, be logically proper.

And so classification has uses in government—indeed, we may say, necessities in government, for government as well as persons has purposes, varied and, at times, exigent, and its legislation must be accommodated to them, either in convenience or necessity. That government has the power to do so we have often pronounced, not, however, omitting to recognize the restraints upon the power while expressing its range and adaptation. In its exercise in taxation, we have said, it is competent for a state to exempt certain kinds of property and tax others, the restraints upon its only being against 'clear and hostile discriminations against particular persons and classes.' Discriminations merely are not inhibited, for, it was recognized that there are 'discriminations which the best interests of society require.' Bell's Gap Railroad Co. v. Pennsylvania, 134 U. S. 232, 237, 10 Sup. Ct. 533, 33 L. Ed. 892.

The principle of that case, and its concession to the power of a state, has received expression and illustration in cases which concerned the exercise of the power in the classification of objects for taxing purposes. In Watson v. State Comptroller, 254 U. S. 122, 41 Sup. Ct. 43, 65 L. Ed. 170, it is said:

'Any classification is permissible which has a reasonable relation to some permitted end of governmental action. * * * It is enough, for instance, if the classification is reasonably founded in 'the purposes and policy of taxation."

In other cases it is said that facts which can be reasonably conceived of as having existed when the law was enacted will be assumed to justify it. Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U. S. 61, 78, 31 Sup. Ct. 337, 55 L. Ed. 369, Ann. Cas. 1912C, 160, Crescent Oil Co. v. Mississippi, 257 U. S. 129, 137, 42 Sup. Ct. 42, 66 L. Ed. 166.

And 'it makes no difference that the facts may be disputed or their effect opposed by argument and opinion of serious strength. It is not within the competency of the courts to arbitrate in such contrariety.' Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis, 240 U. S. 342, 357, 36 Sup. Ct. 370, 60 L. Ed. 679, L. R. A. 1917A, 421, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 455, and cases there cited.

And, further, the purpose of the legislation may not be the correction of some definite evil, but may be only to remove 'obstacles to a greater public welfare.' See, also, as to classification by legislation and its consonance to the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment, District of Columbia v. Brooke, 214 U. S. 138, 150, 29 Sup. Ct. 560, 53 L. Ed. 941.

Is there a guide in these cases to decision, or is it to be found in the cases cited by the plaintiff in error which express the admonition and restraint that a classification to be justified must not be unreasonable or arbitrary? To answer, a comparison of the coals becomes necessary. In making it, the first fact we encounter is a difference in their names, and as names of things are considered significant of their attributes, the names, it may be assumed, announce a difference in attributes, and as dependent upon it, a difference in uses. Resemblances, however, are alleged in the bill and not denied in the answer, which, it is alleged, essentially assimilate the coals and make arbitrary the selection of one for taxation and not the other.

The detail is interesting. It includes the description of the processes of nature in the formation of the coals, their particular properties, composition and appearances, and the localities of their production. Anthracite coal, it is said, is found only in 9 counties out of 67 in the state of Pennsylvania; bituminous coal in 24 counties. Both are sold, is the allegation, to places outside of the state and in competition for fuel purposes, and that the anthracite in certain sizes, termed steam sizes, competes with bituminous coal, and certain subgrades (intermediate grades) of the latter with certain subgrades of anthracite.

But we need not dwell further on these considerations. The fact of competition may be accepted. Both coals, being compositions of carbon, are, of course, capable of combustion and may be used as fuels, but under different conditions and manifestations, and the difference deter mines a choice between them even as fuels. By disregarding that difference and the greater ones which exist, and by dwelling on competition alone, it is easy to erect an argument of strength against the taxation of one and not of the other. But this may not be done. The differences between them are a just basis for their different classification; and the differences are great and important. They differ even as fuels; they...