Rabren v. Pullman Co.
Decision Date | 04 November 1971 |
Docket Number | 3 Div. 454 |
Citation | 254 So.2d 324,287 Ala. 623 |
Parties | Harvey L. RABREN, as Commissioner of Revenue of State of Alabama v. The PULLMAN CO., a Corp. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
MacDonald Gallion, Atty. Gen., Willard W. Livingston, Counsel, Dept. of Revenue and Asst. Atty. Gen., Herbert I. Burson, Jr., Asst. Counsel, Dept. of Revenue and Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.
J. M. Williams, Jr., Rushton, Stakely, Johnston & Garrett, Montgomery, for appellee.
The facts in this case are not in dispute and were stipulated between the parties as follows:
As indicated in the stipulation of facts, the Pullman Company paid under protest the license tax levied under Section 186, Title 51, on December 27, 1967, and sought in this proceeding to have the same refunded under the provisions of Title 51, § 890, Code. The trial court rendered its judgment holding:
'* * * that the business done by the Plaintiff in the operation of its sleeping cars, chair cars and other cars, commonly known as Pullman cars, in the State of Alabama, is business that is exclusively interstate in character; and that the tax levied under Title 51, Section 186, Code of Alabama * * * when levied on the business done by the Plaintiff within the State of Alabama, is a direct tax upon business done in interstate commerce.
'It is, therefore, Considered, Ordered and Declared that the tax levied by Title 51, Section 186, Code of Alabama, Recompiled 1958, when levied on the business done by the Plaintiff in the State of Alabama violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States, * * * and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and void and that the tax in the amount of $20,000.00 paid by the Plaintiff under protest and collected by the Defendant was illegally and invalidly collected, and is due to be and should be refunded to the Plaintiff, * * *.'
From that judgment the Commissioner of Revenue perfected this appeal.
Title 51, § 142 of the Code provides:
Title 51, § 186, provides:
'License tax on sleeping, palace, parlor, chair, and buffet cars.--Every person who engages in the business of operating cars usually termed sleeping, palace, parlor, chair, buffet cars or by whatever name called shall be deemed to be a sleeping car company or association engaged in the business of operating or running sleeping cars * * * and doing business in the state of Alabama and shall annually pay in advance on or before the first day in January of each year to the state of Alabama a license or privilege tax in the sum of twenty thousand dollars.'
The Revenue Commissioner in brief seems to concede that the statute under which the tax was paid (§ 186) is violative of the United States Constitution but says that since the taxpayer paid the tax for many years and ignored the constitutional question it has 'ratified it application by payment'. We cannot agree with this contention. As pointed out in Sadler v....
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Melof v. Hunt
...350 So.2d 438 (Ala.1977) (considering commerce clause challenge raised after sales tax paid under protest); Rabren v. Pullman Co., 287 Ala. 623, 254 So.2d 324 (1971) (upholding commerce clause challenge to license tax paid under protest); Hamm v. Boeing Co., 283 Ala. 310, 216 So.2d 288 (196......
- Richardson v. State, 3 Div. 88
- Trans-Southern Life v. Johnson, TRANS-SOUTHERN