John Dodge v. William Osborn

• Citation: 60 L.Ed. 557,240 U.S. 118,36 S.Ct. 275
• Decision Date: 21 February 1916
• Docket Number: No. 396,396
• Parties: JOHN F. DODGE and Horace E. Dodge, Appts., v. WILLIAM H. OSBORN, Commissioner of Internal Revenue
• Court: United States Supreme Court

240 U.S. 118

36 S.Ct. 275

60 L.Ed. 557

JOHN F. DODGE and Horace E. Dodge, Appts.,

v WILLIAM H. OSBORN, Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

No. 396.

Submitted October 12, 1915.

Decided February 21, 1916.

Mr. Fred A. Baker for appellants.

Solicitor General Davis and Assistant Attorney General Wallace for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:

The appellants filed their bill in the supreme court of the District of Columbia against the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to enjoin the assessment and collection of the taxes imposed by the income tax section of the tariff act of October 3, 1913 (38 Stat. at L. 166, 181, chap. 16), and especially the surtaxes therein provided for, on the ground that the statute was void for repugnancy to the Constitution of the United States. The case is here on appeal from the judgment of the court below, affirming the action of the trial court in sustaining a motion to dismiss the complaint for want of jurisdiction because the complainants had an adequate remedy at law, and because of the provision of § 3224, Revised Statutes (Comp. Stat. 1913, § 5947), that 'no suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax shall be maintained in any court.'

We at once put out of view a contention that § 3224 is not applicable to taxes imposed by the income tax law since we are clearly of the opinion that it is within the contemplation of paragraph L of the act which provides:

'That all administrative, special, and general provisions of law, including the laws in relation to the assessment, remission, collection, and refund of internal-revenue taxes not heretofore specifically repealed and not inconsistent with the provisions of this section, are hereby extended and made applicable to all the provisions of this section and to the tax herein imposed.' And for the same reason we do not further notice a contention as to the inapplicability of §§ 3220, 3226, and 3227 (Comp. Stat. 1913, §§ 5944, 5949, 5950), to which effect was given by the court below, requiring an appeal to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue after payment of a tax claimed to have been erroneously or illegally assessed and collected, and, upon his refusal to return the sum paid, giving a right to sue for its recovery.

The question for decision, therefore, is whether the sections of the Revised Statutes referred to are controlling as to the case in hand. The plain purpose and scope of the sections are thus stated in Snyder v. Marks, 109 U. S. 189, 193, 194, 27 L. ed. 901, 903, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 157, a suit brought to enjoin the collection of a revenue tax on tobacco:

'The inhibition of § 3224 (Comp. Stat. 1913, § 5947), applice to all assessments of taxes, made under color of their offices, by internal revenue officers charged with general jurisdiction of the subject of assessing taxes against tobacco manufacturers. The remedy of a suit to recover back the tax after it is paid is provided by statute, and a suit to restrain its collection is forbidden. The remedy so given is exclusive, and no other remedy can be substituted for it . . . Cheatham v. United States (Cheatham v. Norvekl) 92 U. S. 85, 88, 23 L. ed. 561, 562, and again in State R. Tax Cases, 92 U. S. 575, 613, 23 L. ed. 663, 673, it was said by this court, that the system prescribed by the United States in regard to both customs duties and internal revenue taxes, of stringent measures not judicial, to collect them, with appeals to specified tribunals, and suits to recover back moneys illegally exacted, was a system of corrective justice...