Robertson v. Puffer Mfg. Co.

• Decision Date: 05 February 1917
• Docket Number: 19434
• Citation: 73 So. 804,112 Miss. 890
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: ROBERTSON, STATE REVENUE AGENT v. PUFFER MFG. CO

73 So. 804

112 Miss. 890

ROBERTSON, STATE REVENUE AGENT v. PUFFER MFG. CO

No. 19434

Supreme Court of Mississippi

February 5, 1917

Division B

APPEAL from the circuit court of Hinds county, HON. W. H. POTTER Judge.

Suit between S. V. Robertson, State Revenue Agent, and the Puffer Manufacturing Company. From an adverse judgment, the revenue agent appeals.

The state revenue agent caused certain soda fountains located in Hinds county, Miss., to be assessed for back taxes for a term of years. The notice given by the revenue agent to the assessor directed him to assess said property to the Puffer Manufacturing Company as the owner. The property assessed was held by the McIntyre Drug Company under a contract hereinafter set out, and it was claimed by the appellee that the contract is a conditional sale, and that the property really belongs to the McIntyre Drug Company, and that taxes should be assessed against that company as the owner. It is admitted that no taxes for the years claimed have been paid by any one on this property. The case was submitted to the circuit judge on an agreed statement of facts, and from an adverse decision the revenue agent appeals. The contract executed by the Puffer Manufacturing Company and the McIntyre Drug Company is as follows:

"Lease.

"The Puffer Manufacturing Company, Manufacturers of Soda and Mineral Water Apparatus, Extracts, and Supplies.

"Boston Mass., Oct. 1, 1908.

"Known all men by these presents that McIntyre Drug Company, 343-345 W. Capitol street, of Jackson, state of Mississippi have hired, leased, and received of the Puffer Manufacturing Company, a corporation duly authorized by law and having its usual place of business in the city of Boston in the county of Suffolk, commonwealth of Massachusetts, for the term, to wit, four years four and three-thirtieth months, ending February 5, 1913, subject to the conditions herein stated the following described goods and chattels: One Constellation soda and mineral water draft apparatus No. 513 and appurtenances fully described or manufactured by the said Puffer Manufacturing Company, and numbered as above. And we do promise and agree with the said Puffer Manufacturing Company, its representatives and assigns, to pay it, or them, for the possession and reasonable use thereof, for said term, the sum of four thousand eight hundred dollars as rent, to be paid in the installments set forth in the several obligations given by us therefor as follows: Cash five hundred dollars balance at the rate of ninety dollars a month from March 5, 1909, to January 5, 1913, and seventy dollars February 5, 1913; total four thousand, eight hundred dollars--with interest from date hereof at the rate of six per cent. per annum. And we agree this day to insure the said goods and chattels against fire and cyclones in a sum not less than four thousand three hundred dollars, in the name of said Puffer Manufacturing Company, as owners, and for the benefit of the said Puffer Manufacturing Company, and the said McIntyre Drug Company. And in the event of failure to so insure and deliver policy to said Puffer Manufacturing Company within thirty days from the date hereof, the said Puffer Manufacturing Company may so insure said goods and chattels, and any premium paid for such insurance by said Puffer Manufacturing Company shall be an obligation which must be paid by the lessee in addition to the above-mentioned obligations. And it is provided, that the lessee will pay all taxes assessed on this property. And we further agree that if the whole or any part of the money due by virtue of any of the provisions hereof, whether evidenced by any of said obligations or otherwise due according to any of the terms and provisions of this instrument, or by reason of any breach of said terms or provisions, be not paid when due, and if an attorney be employed for the collection of same, or if any sum so due be collected by an attorney or by legal proceedings of any kind, an attorney's fee of ten per cent. of the amount due, in addition to all costs and expenses incident to such collection, shall be added to the amount so due, and shall become an obligation of like force and effect with the obligations above referred to.

"And it is provided that said property hereby leased is not to be removed from the premises where now located, No. 343-435 W. Cap. street, in said Jackson, Miss., nor in the interest of the lessee under the lease to be transferred without the consent of the said Puffer Manufacturing Company in writing thereto first obtained.

"And it is further provided that upon full payment of the several obligations aforesaid all claims and title to said property on part of the said Puffer Manufacturing Company shall cease, and the whole title shall vest in said lessee as owner. But upon any breach of the provisions of this lease, especially upon failure by the said lessee to pay said obligations, or either of them, as they become due and payable, then all of the said several obligations shall mature and become due immediately, and, at the option of the lessor, this lease and any and all claim or right on the part of the lessee under the same, or to the further use, or to the further use or possession of said property, shall be thereby terminated, and the said Puffer Manufacturing Company, or its representative, may thereafter at any time enter the premises where the said property may be and resume possession of the same without any process of law or let or hindrance from the lessee, and such of the aforesaid obligations as but for said default would have matured after said Puffer Manufacturing Company have resumed possession of said property shall be taken and held to be void, and returned to the lessee upon demand, but the obligations which became due and were unpaid prior to said default shall remain in full force and effect. And it is mutually understood by both parties to the lease that said lessees have not the option of terminating this lease at their pleasure, but shall retain the said goods and chattels for the length of time specified, and pay all the said obligations as they mature.

"Said obligations are not to be taken as a payment for said goods and chattels under any law in any state, but only as evidence of the amount to be paid in order that the lessee may become owner of the property.

"Witness our hand and seal this 10th day of October, 1908.

"[Signed]

McIntyre Drug Co.,

"By C. A. MCINTYRE.

[L. S.]"

Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.

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

W. Calvin Wells, for appellee.

OPINION

COOK, P. J.

This is a suit between the revenue agent and appellee to ascertain to whom should be assessed taxes on a soda water fountain, and from a judgment for appellee, appellant appeals to this court.

The document construed in Puffer Mfg. Co. v Dearman, 97 Miss. 622, 54 So. 310, is essentially...