St Louis Cotton Compress Co v. State of Arkansas

Decision Date04 December 1922
Docket NumberNo. 120,120
Citation67 L.Ed. 297,260 U.S. 346,43 S.Ct. 125
PartiesST. LOUIS COTTON COMPRESS CO. v. STATE OF ARKANSAS
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Mr. Geo. B. Rose, of Little Rock, Ark., for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Wm. T. Hammock and F. G. Lindsey, both of Little Rock, Ark., for the State of Arkansas.

Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a suit by the State of Arkansas against a corporation of Missouri authorized to do business in Arkansas. It is brought to recover five per cent. on the gross premiums paid by the defendant, the plaintiff in error, for insurance upon its property in Arkansas, to companies not authorized to do business in the State. A statute of the state purports to impose a liability for this amount as a tax. Crawford & Moses' Digest (1921) § 9967. The answer alleged that the policies were contracted for, delivered and paid for in St. Louis, Missouri, the domicil of the corporation, because the rates were less than those charged by companies authorized to do business in Arkansas. It also alleged that long before the taxing act was passed the defendant had made large investments in Arkansas in real and personal property essential to the conduct of its business, which it had held and operated over since. The plaintiff demurred. The low Court overruled the demurrer, but the Supreme Court sustained it, holding that the statute denied to the defendant no rights guaranteed to it by the Fourteenth Amendment. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff and the case was brought by writ of error to this Court.

The Supreme Court justified the imposition as an occupation tax—that is, as we understand it, a tax upon the occupation of the defendant. But this Court although bound by the construction that the Supreme Court may put upon the statute is not bound by the characterization of it so far as that characterization may bear upon the question of its constitutional effect. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. v. Arkansas, 235 U. S. 350, 362, 35 Sup. Ct. 99, 59 L. Ed. 265. The short question is whether this so-called tax is saved because of the name given to it by the statute when it has been decided in Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U. S. 578, 17 Sup. Ct. 427, 41 L. Ed. 832, that the imposition of a round sum, called a fine, for doing the same thing, called an offence, is invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment. It is argued that there is a distinction because the Louisiana statute prohibits (by implication) what this statute permits. But that distinction, apart from some relatively insignificant...

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  • Connecticut General Life Ins Co v. Johnson
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • January 31, 1938
    ......CO. . v. . JOHNSON, Treasurer of State of California. . No. 316. . Argued Jan. 14, 1938. . ...337, 62 L.Ed. 772, ann.Cas.1918E, 593; St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas, 260 U.S. 346, 43 S.Ct. ......
  • Louisville Gas Electric Co v. Coleman
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    • United States Supreme Court
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    ...the federal Constitution, we are not bound by the characterization of the tax by the state court, St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas, 260 U. S. 346, 348, 43 S. Ct. 125, 67 L. Ed. 297, the matter is here of little importance. The application of the equal protection clause does not dep......
  • Nelson v. Sears, Roebuck Co
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    • United States Supreme Court
    • February 17, 1941
    ...207 U.S. 229, 28 S.Ct. 100, 52 L.Ed. 185; compare Garretson v. Selby, 37 Iowa 529, 18 Am.Rep. 14. 14 St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas, 260 U.S. 346, 43 S.Ct. 125, 67 L.Ed. 297. 15 Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 303 U.S. 77, 58 S.Ct. 436, 438, 82 L.Ed. 673. 16 New Yor......
  • Stewart Dry Goods Co v. Lewis Levy v. Same Penney Co v. Same Kroger Grocery Baking Co v. Same 8212 457
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • February 8, 1935
    ...445; Dawson v. Kentucky Distilleries, etc., Co., 255 U.S. 288, 292, 41 S.Ct. 272, 65 L.Ed. 638; St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas, 260 U.S. 346, 348, 43 S.Ct. 125, 67 L.Ed. 297. 5 Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Adams, 155 U.S. 688, 698, 15 S.Ct. 268, 39 L.Ed. 311. 6 Franchise taxes m......
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1 books & journal articles
  • Lines in the sand: the importance of borders in American federalism.
    • United States
    • University of Pennsylvania Law Review Vol. 150 No. 3, January 2002
    • January 1, 2002
    ...seeking to prohibit out-of-state payments by corporations doing business in New Mexico); St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas, 260 U.S. 346, 347, 349 (1922) (striking down a statute imposing a tax upon persons placing insurance extraterritorially); N.Y. Life Ins. Co. v. Dodge, 246 U.S.......

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