Johnston State Revenue Agent v. Puffer Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 17 April 1916
• Docket Number: 18918
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: JOHNSTON STATE REVENUE AGENT v. PUFFER MANUFACTURING COMPANY

71 So. 377

111 Miss. 240

JOHNSTON STATE REVENUE AGENT v. PUFFER MANUFACTURING COMPANY

No. 18918

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 17, 1916

APPEAL from the chancery court of Hinds county, HON. O. B. TAYLOR Judge.

Bill by J. C. Johnston, state revenue agent, against the Puffer Manufacturing Company. From a decree sustaining a demurrer to the bill, complainant appeals.

The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.

Decree affirmed.

Jas. R McDowell and F. M. West, for appellant.

W. C Wells, for appellee.

OPINION

POTTER, J.

This is an appeal from the chancery court of the first district of Hinds county sustaining a demurrer to appellant's bill filed against appellee.

The state revenue agent exhibited his original bill against the Puffer Manufacturing Company, a nonresident, seeking to recover state, county, and municipal taxes alleged to be delinquent for the years 1908 to 1915, both inclusive. The appellee is a corporation domiciled at Boston, Mass., and is engaged in the manufacture and sale of soda water fountains in the state of Mississippi and elsewhere, and has been so engaged for many years previous to the filing of this suit. The appellee sold fountains, according to the allegations of the bill in this state, during the years above mentioned, on contracts whereby the title to the property was retained by it and all payments, under the terms of the contracts, were to be considered rent until the entire purchase money was paid. In other words, the contracts for the sale of the fountains in question were the usual so-called "lease contracts" by which the sales of personal property are made and the title retained in the seller until the purchaser pays the entire contract price to the seller in installments, whereupon the property, upon the payment of the last installment, becomes the property of the lessee or purchaser.

The bill alleged that many sales of the kind above mentioned were made by the defendant company in the state of Mississippi; that a number of such fountains had been leased in the state of Mississippi during the years mentioned; that the property was the property of the appellee until the terms of the lease were complied with; that no taxes had been paid thereon; that such taxes were debts lawfully owing from appellee, and that it was liable therefor; that some of the contracts of the lease were recorded, but that many of them were not, and a copy of the form of lease was made an exhibit to the bills.

The bill prayed: (1) For a discovery setting out in detail the names of all persons who had contracts with the defendant throughout the state and the several counties and municipalities therein, beginning with the year 1908, and ending with the year 1915; (2) the date of said contract; (3) the amount named as consideration in each contract; (4) the duration of the said contracts and the installments called for therein; (5) a description of the property so hired or leased; (6) the residence of each of the lessees in said contracts; (7) the amounts paid said manufacturing company under said contracts; (8) the present location of each soda fountain and appurtenances thereto appertaining, and the location of each fountain on the 1st day of February of each year since it was brought into the state of Mississippi, and, after discovery, for an accounting and a decree for the full amount adjudged to be due the state, counties, and municipalities as taxes for the years mentioned.

A demurrer was filed to this bill setting out, first, that the court has no...