People of the State of New York Metropolitan Street Railway Company v. State Board of Tax Commissioners
Decision Date | 29 May 1905 |
Docket Number | No. 74,74 |
Parties | PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK ex rel. METROPOLITAN STREET RAILWAY COMPANY, Plff. in Err. , v. STATE BOARD OF TAX COMMISSIONERS |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
On May 26, 1899, the legislature of New York passed an act amending the tax law of the state. N. Y. Laws, 1899, chap. 712, p. 1589. The first section reads:
The portions in italics are the new matter introduced by the amendment. Other section were added to tax law, of which § 46 is as follows:
Other sections provide the machinery for assessment. This assessment was to be made by the state board of tax commissioners, and one section authorized certiorari to review their proceedings.
Under this law an assessment was made of the franchises belonging to the plaintiff in error, a corporation created by the consolidation of several corporations, having franchises for the maintenance and operation of street railroads in the city of New York. A certiorari to review this assessment was finally decided by the court of appeals of the state, which, on April 28, 1903 (174 N. Y. 417, 63 L. R. A. 884, 67 N. E. 69), sustained the assessment, and remanded the case to the special term of the supreme court, by which court a final judgment was entered, June 22, 1903. Thereupon this writ of error was sued out. Plaintiff in error makes three assignments of error:
'I. Error in declining to hold that the act of the legislature of the state of New York, approved May 26th, 1899 (chap. 712, Laws 1899), entitled 'An Act to Amend the Tax Law in Relation to the Taxation of Public Franchises as Real Property,' in so far as it authorizes the assessment imposed by the state board of tax commissioners on March 20, 1900, upon the franchises of the [plaintiff in error] relator above named, deprives said relator of its property without due process of law, in contravention of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Prior to 1874 the legislature of New York made direct grants of franchises, rights, or privileges to use the streets of the city of New York. In that year the following amendment to the Constitution was adopted (Constitution 1846, as amended, art. 3, § 18):
'The legislature shall not pass a private or local bill in any of the following cases: . . .
'Granting to any corporation, association, or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks. . . .
'But no law shall authorize the construction or operation of a street railroad except upon the condition that the consent of the owners of one half in value of the property bounded on, and the consent also of the local authorities having the control of, that portion of a street or highway upon which it is proposed to construct or operate such railroad, be first obtained, or, in case the consent of such property owners cannot be obtained, the general term of the supreme court, in the district in which it is proposed to be constructed, may, upon application, appoint three commissioners, who shall determine, after a hearing of all parties interested, whether such railroad ought to be constructed or operated, and their determination, confirmed by the court, may be taken in lieu of the consent of the property owners.'
In 1884 an act was passed (Laws 1884, chap. 252, p. 309) giving to the local authorities power to grant franchised for street railroads. This act provided:
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