South Carolina Tax Commission v. Schafer Distributing Co., 18497

• Decision Date: 03 May 1966
• Docket Number: No. 18497,18497
• Citation: 148 S.E.2d 156,247 S.C. 491
• Parties: SOUTH CAROLINA TAX COMMISSION, Appellant, v. SCHAFER DISTRIBUTING COMPANY Inc., Respondent.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

Page 156

148 S.E.2d 156

247 S.C. 491

SOUTH CAROLINA TAX COMMISSION, Appellant, v. SCHAFER DISTRIBUTING COMPANY Inc., Respondent.

No. 18497.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

May 3, 1966.

Daniel R. McLeod, Atty. Gen., Joe L. Allen, Jr., James B. Ellisor, Asst. Attys. Gen., James M. Windham, Columbia, for appellant.

Blatt & Fales, Barnwell, Fulmer, Barnes & Berry, Columbia, for respondent.

BRAILSFORD, Justice.

The scheduled time for a break in Swift Strike II, military exercises involving some 10,000 troops, was advanced twenty-four hours to commence immediately on Sunday, August 12, 1962. Troops of the 101st Air Borne Division, U.S.A., were encamped near Shaw Air Force Base, and the commanding officer of the base was notified that a large quantity of beer was required for the use of these troops on that day.

The Schafer Distributing Company, Inc., Sumter branch, was one of several suppliers of beer to Shaw. A representative of the post exchange, Roger E. Thebo, reached the branch manager, Francis Wilder, at home after church, advised him of the emergency and urgently requested the immediate delivery of 1000 cases of Falstaff beer. Promising to do the best that he could, the manager rounded up off-duty personnel, loaded a truck with 500 cases of non-taxed, 3.2 Falstaff beer and dispatched it to Shaw. The beer was duly delivered, and Schafer was charged with having violated Section 4--204, Code of Laws 1962, by selling beer on Sunday. After a hearing before the South Carolina Tax Commission, Schafer was found guilty as charged. A penalty was assessed and beer and wine of the aggregate value of $25,000.00, which had been seized by the agents of the commission at the Sumter plant, were declared confiscated.

As allowed by Section 4--217, Code of 1962, Schafer appealed to the Court of Common Pleas for Richland County. After a hearing De novo, the court concluded that the facts established did not sustain the conviction and reversed the action of the South Carolina Tax Commission. The commission has appealed to this court.

After pointing out that the territory comprising Shaw Air Force Base was ceded by the State of South Carolina to the United States government in 1950, Section 39--132, Code of 1962, together with exclusive jurisdiction for all purposes except service of process, the circuit court stated the grounds of its decision as follows:

'The authorities uniformly hold that where the State cedes to the United States the land upon which military installations are placed by the United States, exclusive jurisdiction over all matters and things occurring within the reservation is fixed alone in the United States. The laws of the State of South Carolina and the rules and regulations of the South Carolina Tax Commission have no application whatsoever within Shaw Air Force Base. This Court finds that the sale and delivery of the beer in question occurred at the Shaw Air Force Base and beyond the jurisdiction of the State of South Carolina and the rules and regulations of the South Carolina Tax Commission.'

It is apparent that the judgment appealed from rests squarely upon two premises. 1st. The statute invoked against Schafer has no application to a sale of beer on Shaw Air Force Base. 2d. The sale in question took place there. Therefore, the statute did not apply and the sale was lawful.

The commission has taken no exception to the first premise. Hence, the inapplicability of the statute to a sale on the reservation stands as the law of the case. The only issue for decision on this appeal is raised by the commission's challenge to the court's conclusion that the sale of beer took place on the ceded property, rather than at Schafer's place of business in Sumter.

The commission contends that while the offer to purchase beer came from Shaw, the acceptance of the offer took place in Sumter; hence, Sumter was the situs of the sale. This loses sight of the fact that the offer to purchase was of beer delivered at Shaw. Thebo, as representative of Shaw, sought to meet an emergency...