Keokuk Hamilton Bridge Company v. People of the State of Illinois

• Decision Date: 08 January 1900
• Docket Number: No. 26,26
• Citation: 44 L.Ed. 299,20 S.Ct. 205,175 U.S. 626
• Parties: KEOKUK & HAMILTON BRIDGE COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

175 U.S. 626

20 S.Ct. 205

44 L.Ed. 299

KEOKUK & HAMILTON BRIDGE COMPANY, Plff. in Err.,

v PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

No. 26.

Submitted November 15, 1899.

Decided January 8, 1900.

Messrs. W. D. Davidge and W. D. Davidge, Jr., for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Edward C. Akin and O. F. Berry for defendant in error.

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

This is a writ of error to review the judgment of the supreme court of Illinois affirming a judgment of the county court of Hancock county, in that state, for delinquent taxes assessed against the Keokuk & Hamilton Bridge Company for the year 1894.

The Keokuk & Hamilton Bridge Company was incorporated by an act of the general assembly of the state of Illinois in 1857, with power to build, maintain, and use a bridge for railroad and other purposes over the Mississippi river from or near the town of Hamilton, in the county of Hancock, to Keokuk, in the state of Iowa, and was authorized to connect the bridge by railroad or otherwise with any railroad or railroads terminating thereat or approximately thereto, and to consolidate with any railroad or other company or companies in Illinois or any other state. A similar corporation was organized under the laws of the state of Iowa, and the two corporations consolidated with the main office at Keokuk.

Authority to construct and maintain the bridge was granted the two companies by the act of Congress of July 25, 1866. 14 Stat. at L. 244, chap. 246.

The record discloses that the company objected to the assessment of its tangible property as made by the assessor of the township in which the Illinois end of the bridge was situated, and applied to the township board of review for a reduction, protesting that the property was overvalued; 'that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has been violated, in that equal justice and protection to property of the said bridge company has been denied;' 'that the property assessed and described by the assessor lies partly in the state of Iowa and is not subject to taxation in Illinois;' etc. The board of review denied the relief asked, and the bridge company appealed to the board of supervisors of Hancock county, which also refused to change the assessment. The collector of Hancock county then applied to the county court, at its May term, 1895, for judgment on the delinquent tax list, including the assessment against the bridge company, to which the company filed its objections, rehearsing the proceedings which had been theretofore taken, the objections made, and the evidence adduced. Before a hearing on these objections was had, the parties stipulated that the collector might 'insert in his application for judgment the capital stock tax for the year 1894 levied by the state board of equalization against said company,' which was done.

The bridge company thereupon filed its objections to any judgment for the capital stock tax, as follows:

'Objections by 'the Keokuk & Hamilton Bridge Company' to judgment against its bridge and approach.

'The original objections filed to said May term covering the application as there made.

'The application was amended in June by adding claims for capital stock tax of 1894, $1,029.90.

'This objection is to the proposed judgment against said property for said claimed tax on the capital stock of said company —

'1st. Because said bridge company is consolidated corporation of the states of Illinois and Iowa, one half in each of said states, and its entire business is that of interstate commerce, and any tax thereon is a tax upon such interstate commerce, and is without authority of law and void.

'2d. Such claimed capital stock tax is levied upon the whole capital stock, when only one half thereof, if any, is assessable in Illinois.

'3d. The only tax assessable against said property is upon its tangible property in Illinois.

'4th. Said pretended assessment of capital stock is wholly void because not made in the manner required by law nor according to the rules of the state board of equalization.'

Considerable evidence was introduced, including the proceedings of the state board of equalization, from which it appeared that the capital stock of the bridge company was returned at $1,000,000; that the total amount of its indebtedness except for current expenses, and excluding from such expenses the amount paid for the purchase or improvement of property, was $1,000,000, with unpaid interest thereon amounting to $900,000; that the assessed valuation of lands and structure was $218,000, and that the state board of equalization placed the valuation for assessment of capital stock at $30,080. The tax on the tangible property was $2,708,61, and on the capital stock, $1,019.17. Judgment was rendered by the county court for those amounts and interest. From this judgment the case was carried on appeal to the supreme court, and there affirmed.

Among the errors assigned in that court were that 'the court erred in overruling defendant's (appellant's) objections to the rendition of judgment of the capital-stock tax (so-called) and rendering judgment thereon. Among the reasons for said error are the following:

'a. Said capital stock tax is a tax on personal, not on real, property, and is chargeable only at the place of the main office and place of business of defendant (appellant)—Keokuk, in the state of Iowa—and is made in violation of the rights of defendant (appellant), contrary to the laws regulating commerce between the states and contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States.

'b. If any part of said capital stock of defendant (appe- llant) is taxable in Illinois, it can only be that portion thereof that would correspond to the length of the bridge in Illinois as compared to the whole length of bridge, represented by said capital stock—not exceeding one half of said stock—yet the judgment is rendered for the tax assessed against the whole of the capital stock of defendant (appellant) as though all was located in Illinois:' that the judgment was against the evidence as to the length of the bridge in Illinois: and that the court ignored the act of Congress fixing the western boundary of Illinois.

In the opinion of the supreme court of Illinois, Keokuk & H. Bridge Co. v. People ex rel. Atchison, 167 Ill. 15, 47 N. E. 313, it is said: 'The grounds of reversal are, first, the assessments were fraudulently made; second, the whole of the capital stock is assessed in this state, whereas an undivided half of it is taxable in Iowa; third, the judgment is upon an assessment upon a part of appellant's bridge, not in the state of Illinois, but in the state of Iowa. The facts upon which the first two grounds are based are substantially the same as those upon which similar objections were urged in cases between the same parties in 145 Ill. 596, 34 N. E. 482, and 161 Ill. 132, 43 N. E. 691, and 514, 44 N. E. 206, and are disposed of adversely to appellant by those decisions.'

The last point was disposed of on the ground that the county court was justified on the evidence in finding that no part of the bridge assessed was in the state of Iowa.

In Keokuk & H. Bridge Co. v. People, 145 Ill. 596, 34 N. E. 482, it was held that when the middle of a navigable river becomes the boundary line between two states, the middle of the current or channel of commerce will be regarded as the boundary line; that an assessor in Illinois, in assessing a bridge over a navigable river forming the boundary of the state for the purpose of taxation, has no right to assess any part of such bridge that is located beyond such boundary line; and that unless the property has been fraudulently assessed more than its fair cash value, the courts cannot interfere with the action of the assessor. The judgment in that case was reversed because the assessor had assessed several hundred feet of the bridge as in Hancock county, Illinois, which was located beyond the boundary line of the state.

In Keokuk & H. Bridge Co. v. People ex rel. County Treasurer, 161 Ill. 132, 43 N. E. 691, it was ruled that in fixing the value for taxation the assessor acts judicially, and the courts cannot revise his assessment on the mere...