Singer Sewing Machine Company of New Jersey v. James Benedict

Citation33 S.Ct. 942,229 U.S. 481,57 L.Ed. 1288
Decision Date09 June 1913
Docket NumberNo. 289,289
PartiesSINGER SEWING MACHINE COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY, Appt., v. JAMES F. BENEDICT, Treasurer, etc., et al
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Messrs. R. H. Gilmore and Henry A. Prince for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 481-483 intentionally omitted] Messrs. J. A. Marsh and W. H. Bryant for appellees.

Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a suit by the Singer Company, a New Jersey corporation, to enjoin the collection of taxes levied by the city and county of Denver, in the state of Colorado. The company made a return of taxable personal property at a valuation of $3,800, to which the assessor added other personalty at a valuation of $62,500, making a total assessment of $66,300, which was afterwards embodied in a tax list delivered to the treasurer for collection. The company tendered payment of $126.50, the amount of taxes due on the property returned by it, and refused to pay the amount attributable to the additional assessment. The treasurer declined to accept the tender, and was threatening to enforce the entire tax, when the suit was brought. The bill charged that the assessor, although required by law to give the company timely notice of the additional assessment, had failed to give it any notice, and that it was thereby prevented from presenting objections to the increase and obtaining a hearing and ruling thereon by the assessor and by the proper reviewing authority, to which it was entitled by the local law. There were also allegations to the effect that the company had no property within the city and county other than that returned by it; that the additional assessment and the taxes levied thereon were illegal because of the assessor's failure to give the required notice; and that to enforce the collection of such taxes would be violative of designated provisions of the Constitution of the United States. The defendants demurred on the ground that the bill did not state a case for equitable relief, but the demurrer was overruled. The defendants then answered, repeating the objection made in the demurrer, and interposing other defenses which need not be noticed now. Upon the hearing a decree was entered dismissing the bill, and the company appealed to the circuit court of appeals. That court held that there was an adequate remedy at law, and affirmed the decree. 103 C. C. A. 186, 179 Fed. 628. The company then took the present appeal.

In the courts of the United States it is a guiding rule that a bill in equity does not lie in any case where a plain, adequate, and complete remedy may be had at law. The statute so declares, Rev. Stat. § 723, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 583, and the decisions enforcing it are without number. If it be quite obvious that there is such a remedy, it is the duty of the court to interpose the objection sua spontie, and in other cases it is treated as waived if not presented by the defendant in limine. Reynes v. Dumont, 130 U. S. 354, 395, 32 L. ed. 934, 945, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 486; Allen v. Pullman's Palace Car Co. 139 U. S. 658, 35 L. ed. 303, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 682. There was no waiver here. The objection was made by the demurrer and again by the answer; and so, if it was well grounded, it was as available to the defendants in the circuit court of appeals to prevent a decree against them there as it was in the circuit court. Boise Artesian Hot & Cold Water Co. v. Boise City, 213 U. S. 276, 53 L. ed. 796, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 426.

In the last case it was said of the pertinency of the guiding rule in cases such as this (p. 281): 'A notable application of the rule in the courts of the United States has been to cases where a demand has been made to enjoin the collection of taxes or other impositions made by state authority, upon the ground that they are illegal or unconstitutional. The decisions of the state courts in cases of this kind are in conflict and we need not examine them. It is a mere matter of choice of convenient remedy for a state to permit its courts to enjoin the collection of a state tax because it is illegal or unconstitutional. Very different considerations arise where courts of a different, though paramount, sovereignty, interpose in the same manner and for the same reasons. An examination of the decisions of this court shows that a proper reluctance to interfere by prevention with the fiscal operations of the state governments has caused it to refrain from so doing in all cases where the Federal rights of the persons could otherwise be preserved unimpaired. It has been held uniformly that the illegality or unconstitutionality of a state or municipal tax or imposition is not of itself a ground for equitable relief in the courts of the United States. In such case the aggrieved party is left to his remedy at law, when that remedy is as complete, practicable, and efficient as the remedy in equity.'

A statute of Colorado enacted in 1870, (Laws 1870, p. 123, § 106), and embodied in subsequent revenue acts (2 Mills's Anno. Stat. § 3777; Laws 1902, p. 146, § 202; Rev. Stat. 1908, § 5750), declares that 'in all cases where any person shall pay any tax, interest, or costs, or any portion thereof, that shall thereafter be found to be erroneous or illegal, whether the same be owing to erroneous or improper assessment, to improper or irregular levying of the tax, to clerical or other errors or irregularities, the board of county commissioners shall refund the same without abatement or discount to the taxpayer.' This statute imposes upon the county...

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    ...at law, when that remedy is as complete, practicable and efficient as the remedy in equity"); Singer Sewing Machine Co. v. Benedict, 229 U.S. 481, 488, 33 S.Ct. 942, 944, 57 L.Ed. 1288 (1913) (holding that federal courts will not enjoin the collection of unconstitutional state taxes where t......
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    ...of state taxation. See, e. g., Matthews v. Rodgers, 284 U.S. 521, 52 S.Ct. 217, 76 L.Ed. 447 (1932); Singer Sewing Machine Co. v. Benedict, 229 U.S. 481, 33 S.Ct. 942, 57 L.Ed. 1288 (1913); Boise Artesian Water Co. v. Boise City, 213 U.S. 276, 29 S.Ct. 426, 53 L.Ed. 796 (1909). Even after e......
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    ...is not to be disregarded. Reynes v. Dumont, 130 U. S. 354, 395, 9 S. Ct. 486, 32 L. Ed. 934; Singer Sewing Machine Company v. Benedict, 229 U. S. 481, 484, 33 S. Ct. 942, 57 L. Ed. 1288; American Mills Company v. American Surety Company, 260 U. S. 360, 363, 43 S. Ct. 149, 67 L. Ed. 306. The......
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