Sinclair Refining Co. v. Day

• Decision Date: 02 March 1926
• Docket Number: No. 111.,111.
• Citation: 11 F.2d 664
• Parties: SINCLAIR REFINING CO. v. DAY, Sheriff, etc.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

11 F.2d 664 (1926)

SINCLAIR REFINING CO. v. DAY, Sheriff, etc.

No. 111.

District Court, E. D., Louisiana, Baton Rouge Division.

March 2, 1926.

A. J. Thomas, of Baton Rouge, La. (A. V. Coco, Atty. Gen., of Louisiana, and Harry P. Sneed, of New Orleans, La., of counsel), for State Tax Collector.

Edw. H. Chandler and Summers Hardy, both of Tulsa, Okl., and J. G. Palmer and J. Fair Hardin, both of Shreveport, La., opposed.

Before BRYAN and FOSTER, Circuit Judges, and BURNS, District Judge.

BURNS, District Judge.

This is a suit to enjoin the collection of taxes assessed against oil tank cars owned by the plaintiff for the years 1922 to 1925, inclusive, totaling over $17,000; the same being a special state tax of 25 mills on the dollar, imposed as by Act No. 109 Ex. Sess. of 1921 of the General Assembly of Louisiana, in addition to the general state tax of 5¼ mills, which plaintiff paid without protest. No controversy is made with reference to the assessed valuations made by the Louisiana tax commissioners, nor as to the correctness of the number of cars so assessed, nor as to the validity of the 5¼ mills general tax, so that there is involved only the validity of the special 25-mill assessment, which is provided for by section 5 of the act referred to, which prescribes:

"That in addition to the taxes levied in the amount and for the purposes designated in the foregoing sections of this act there is hereby levied for the calendar year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two (1922), A. D., and each succeeding calendar year, for state purposes, to be paid into the general fund, an annual tax of twenty-five mills (.025) on the dollar of the assessed value of all rolling stock of nonresident persons, firms, partnerships, companies, associations or corporations, having no domicile in the state of Louisiana, operated over any railroad in the state of Louisiana within or during any year for which such tax is levied; and the term `rolling stock' as used herein shall include any kind of locomotive, car or sleeping car used for freight or passenger purposes that may be so operated over any railroad within the state."

The case is submitted on the pleadings, an agreed statement of facts, together with certified excerpts of the tax rolls from the records of parish sheriffs, ex officio tax collectors, of the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Caddo, Jefferson, Ouachita, Red River, and the city of Shreveport, in Caddo parish, La., and the reports of the Louisiana tax commission for the years 1922 and 1925, from which it appears that the plaintiff is a Maine corporation, owning and operating oil tank cars which move in interstate commerce within the state of Louisiana; that the plaintiff is not domiciled in Louisiana, in fact or in law, and is not engaged in doing business in Louisiana; that there has been assessed against the tank cars the general and special state taxes first above described; that the said tax is an ad valorem tax upon property employed by the plaintiff in the state of Louisiana, and confined to the transportation of the plaintiff's products in interstate commerce; that the total of all state, parish, and local taxes levied and collected by the state and local authorities in some of the parishes of the state of Louisiana, upon real and personal property, exceed the total of the general state taxes of 5¼ mills, plus the special state tax of 25 mills, or say 30¼ mills, imposed by Act 109 of 1921 upon the oil tank car property of plaintiff; that the total of all state, parish, and local taxes in some of the parishes of the state of Louisiana, and in the parish of East Baton Rouge, is less than the total of the state general taxes of 5¼ mills, plus the special tax of 25 mills, or say 30¼ mills, imposed by Act 109 of 1921. (The general state tax for the year 1925 was increased to 5¾ mills.)

The general scheme of taxation in Louisiana, as shown by article X of its Constitution, provides:

Section 3. A general state-wide ad valorem tax of 5¼ mills.

Section 7. Inheritance taxes.

Section 8. License or occupation taxes.

Section 9. Taxes on banks domiciled out of the state.

Section 16. Taxes on nonresident owned rolling stock.

Section 21. Severance tax.

The first three are levied generally, while the last three are distinctly lieu taxes. The 25-mill tax, called in question, is levied under section 5 ...