Shreveport Gas, Electric Light and Power Company v. Assessor of Parish

• Decision Date: 01 January 1895
• Docket Number: 11,691
• Citation: 16 So. 650,47 La.Ann. 65
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: SHREVEPORT GAS, ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY v. ASSESSOR OF CADDO PARISH

16 So. 650

47 La.Ann. 65

SHREVEPORT GAS, ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY v. ASSESSOR OF CADDO PARISH

No. 11,691

Supreme Court of Louisiana

January 1, 1895

APPEAL from the First District Court, Parish of Caddo. Taylor J.

Wise &amp Herndon, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

J. R Land, District Attorney, and T. C. Barrett, for Defendant and Appellee.

OPINION

WATKINS, J.

The plaintiff claims exemption on its plant and property engaged and employed in the manufacture of gas -- that is to say illuminating gas for street lighting and other purposes in the city of Shreveport. This claim is made under the terms of an amendment to Art. 207 of the Constitution, which declares that "capital, machinery and other property employed in the manufacture of fertilizers and chemicals are exempt from taxation."

The inquiry is, is gas a chemical within the meaning and intendment of the constitutional amendment?

The full text of the article, as amended, reads thus:

"There shall be exempted from taxation the capital, machinery and other property employed in the manufacture of textile fabrics, leather, shoes, harness, saddlery, hats, flour, machinery, agricultural implements; the manufacture of ice, fertilizers and chemicals, and furniture and other articles of wood, marble or stone, soap, stationery, ink and paper, boat building and chocolate; provided, that not less than five hands are employed in any one factory." See Acts of 1886, No. 92.

The plaintiff interrogated several scientific gentlemen of this city on the subject, two of whom expressed the deliberate opinion that gas is recognized as a chemical, but the third said it is a disputed question.

One of the two gentlemen who affirmed that gas is a chemical, founded his opinion rather upon the abstract interpretation that is placed upon the term by lexicographers, than upon a scientific knowledge of his own, as the following extract from his testimony will show, viz.:

"We call attention to the answer of Prof. Caldwell to the sixth interrogatory, in which he is asked, if in his opinion gas can be properly called a chemical: 'Yes, for the reason that it accords with the definitions of the word chemical as given in our standard dictionaries, which are: "A substance used for producing chemical effects; a substance produced by a chemical process; a chemical agent prepared for scientific or economic use." The destructive distillation, by which it is produced, and the subsequent burning of it, by which it is utilized, are undoubtedly chemical.'

"To the first cross-interrogatory he says 'It is very...