Jett Bros Distilling Co v. City of Carrollton, 108

• Decision Date: 01 March 1920
• Docket Number: No. 108,108
• Citation: 40 S.Ct. 255,64 L.Ed. 421,252 U.S. 1
• Parties: JETT BROS. DISTILLING CO. v. CITY OF CARROLLTON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

252 U.S. 1

40 S.Ct. 255

64 L.Ed. 421

JETT BROS. DISTILLING CO.

v CITY OF CARROLLTON.

No. 108.

Argued Dec. 19, 1919.

Decided March 1, 1920.

Mr. Helm Bruce, of Louisville, Ky., for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 1-3 intentionally omitted] Mr. A. E. Stricklett, of Covington, Ky., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice DAY delivered the opinion of the Court.

The city of Carrollton brought suit against Jett Bros. Distilling Company to recover balances alleged to be due as taxes upon distilled spirits belonging to the company held in a bonded warehouse in that city. The taxes sued for were those for the years 1907 to 1916, inclusive. It appears that during those years the city assessor undertook to assess for taxation the distilled spirits in the bonded warehouse and the city taxes were paid as thus assessed. This suit was brought to recover taxes for the above-mentioned years upon the theory that during that period the spirits should have been valued by the state board of valuation and assessment as provided by the statutes of Kentucky. Ky. St. §§ 4105, 4114. It was alleged that the valuation by the city assessor was without authority of law, by mistake, and for a much less sum than that fixed for each of said years by the state board. It was also alleged that the company had notice of the valuation fixed by the state board; that the city assessor was without authority to assess spirits in bonded warehouses; that the value fixed by him was an inconsiderable sum, and much less than that fixed by the state board in accordance with the Kentucky Statutes. The Distilling Company took issue upon the petition. It pleaded the original levies for the years in question and the payment of the taxes for each and all of the said years. It pleaded that the whisky which it was sought to tax under the new levy of 1915-1916 had been removed from the bonded warehouse of the company, and was no longer its property, and that it could no longer protect itself as it could have done had the tax been levied while the spirits were in its possession.

In the nineteenth paragraph of the answer a defense was set up upon a ground of federal right under the Constitution. It was averred that during all the years covered by the amended petition it had been the rule, custom, habit, practice and system in the city of Carrollton to assess and cause to be assessed the real estate therein at an average of not more than 40 per cent. of its fair cash value, and to assess and cause to be assessed personal property in that city at an average of not more than 30 per cent. of its fair cash value; that the assessment made by the state board upon which taxes were sought to be recovered was made at 100 per cent. of the fair cash value of the whisky, and that the attempt of the plaintiff to collect the same, was in violation of the defendant's rights under the Constitution of the state of Kentucky and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

The circuit court gave judgment in favor of the city for the amounts claimed under the new levy of 1916, giving credit for the amounts paid under the original levies for the preceding years. The company appealed to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, where the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed. 178 Ky. 561, 199 S. W. 37. There was no other reference to the federal Constitution than that contained in the answer, so far as we have been able to discover, and the Court of Appeals dealt with the federal question, deemed to be before it, as follows (178 Ky. 566, 199 S. W. 39):

'It is further asserted that the recent cases of Green v. Louisville & Interurban Railway Company and Green v. Louisville Railway Company, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States and reported in 37 Supreme Court Reports, 673, uproot the contention that the act is c nstitutional, and hold that the state board of valuation, and the city assessor and board of supervisors, acting independently of each other, and fixing different valuations of the same property, work a discrimination, inimical both to the federal and state constitutions. In this, however, appellant is in error. It must be borne in mind that complaint is only made of the assessment. The warehouseman had his remedy, in case of an excessive or unfair valuation, by appearing before the board of valuation and...