James Lusk v. Botkin

• Citation: 60 L.Ed. 621,240 U.S. 236,36 S.Ct. 263
• Decision Date: 21 February 1916
• Docket Number: No. 451,451
• Parties: JAMES W. LUSK, William C. Nixon, and William B. Biddle, Receivers of the Railroads and Property of St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, Plffs. in Err., v. J. T. BOTKIN, Secretary of State of the State of Kansas
• Court: United States Supreme Court

240 U.S. 236

36 S.Ct. 263

60 L.Ed. 621

JAMES W. LUSK, William C. Nixon, and William B. Biddle, Receivers of the Railroads and Property of St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad Company, Plffs. in Err.,

v J. T. BOTKIN, Secretary of State of the State of Kansas.

No. 451.

Submitted January 7, 1916.

Decided February 21, 1916.

Messrs. R. R. Vermilion and W. F. Evans for plaintiffs in error.

Messrs. James P. Coleman, W. P. Montgomery, John L. Hunt, and Mr. S. M. Brewster, Attorney General of Kansas, for defendant in error.

Mr. Paul E. Walker, as amicus curiae, on behalf of the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railway Company.

Mr. Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiffs in error, the receivers of a railroad corporation organized under the laws of the state of Missouri, brought this action to recover the sum of $2,500, alleged to have been paid under protest to the secretary of state of the state of Kansas as a tax upon foreign corporations imposed by chapter 135 of the Laws of 1913. A general demurrer to the petition was sustained, and, as the plaintiff declined to plead further, judgment was rendered in favor of the defendant. This judgment was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. 95 Kan. 271, 147 Pac. 794.

The act above mentioned (§ 2) requires 'every foreign corporation, for profit, now or hereafter doing business in this state, and owning or using a part or all of its capital in this state, and subject to compliance with the laws relating to the admission of foreign corporations to do business in Kansas' to make annual report, setting forth certain facts, to the secretary of state. It is further provided that 'upon the filing of such report the secretary of state, from the facts thus reported and any other facts coming to his knowledge bearing upon the question, shall determine the proportion of the issued capital stock of the company represented by its property and business in Kansas, and shall charge and collect from such company, in addition to the initial fees, for the priviledge of exercising its franchise in Kansas, an annual fee upon that proportion of such foreign corporation's issued capital stock as is devoted to its Kansas business.' The amount of the fee is graduated according to the amount of the issued capital stock 'used in Kansas.' The minimum annual fee is $10, when the issued capital stock so used does not exceed $10,000; and the maximum annual fee is $2,500, when the issued capital stock so used exceeds $5,000,000.

Construing these provisions of the act, and answering the objection that, as to a railroad company, and other foreign corporations, doing both a local and interstate business, the act was invalid because it undertook to regulate interstate commerce, the supreme court of Kansas said in State ex rel. Dawson v. Sessions, 95 Kan. 272, 275, 147 Pac. 789:

'The requirements of the statute are imposed on such foreign corporations doing business in this state as are 'subject to compliance with the laws relating to the admission of foreign corporations to do...