State Attorney General v. Eagle Lumber Co.

• Decision Date: 30 May 1921
• Docket Number: (No. 13.)
• Citation: 231 S.W. 180
• Parties: STATE ex rel. ATTORNEY GENERAL v. EAGLE LUMBER CO.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Page 180

231 S.W. 180

STATE ex rel. ATTORNEY GENERAL v. EAGLE LUMBER CO.

(No. 13.)

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

May 30, 1921.

Appeal from Ouachita Chancery Court; James M. Barker, Chancellor.

Action by the State, on the relation of the Attorney General, against the Eagle Lumber Company. From a decree for less relief than demanded, both parties appeal. Reversed, and cause dismissed, on defendant's appeal.

J. S. Utley, Elbert Godwin, and George Vaughan, all of Little Rock, and Wm. T. Hammock, of Heber Spring, for appellant.

Gaughan & Sifford, of Camden, for appellee.

McCULLOCH, C. J.

The Attorney General instituted this action on behalf of the state of Arkansas against the defendant, Eagle Lumber Company, a foreign corporation, to recover unpaid taxes alleged to be due on its capital stock since the time it began doing business in this state in the year 1899 up to the time of the commencement of the suit in 1919. The facts are undisputed and are set forth in a written stipulation signed by counsel on both sides.

The defendant is a private corporation, organized under the laws of the state of Iowa, and it began doing business in the state of Arkansas on March 3, 1899, and complied with the laws of the state with respect to foreign corporations doing business in the state. Its authorized and paid-up capital stock was originally $250,000, and subsequently raised to $500,000, "all of which," according to the recitals of the agreed statement of facts, "has always been employed in Arkansas." The written stipulation as to facts reads as follows:

"(2) The tangible assets of the company consist wholly of a sawmill, lumber, logs, and merchandise at Eagle Mills, and of the timber lands situated in Ouachita, Dallas and Calhoun counties, all in the state of Arkansas. It owns no property located elsewhere, and for all the years covered by this suit its sole business was the manufacture and sale of timber products at Eagle Mills, Ark.

"(3) * * *

"(4) The company has paid due state and local taxes on all of its tangible property, real and personal, including certain "moneys and credits" to the proper authorities in Arkansas in accordance with the revenue laws of this state.

"(5) It is agreed as a stipulation of fact that during the period of years covered by the complaint herein the shares of stock representing the capital stock of the company had the same value and no greater than the aggregate property owned by the corporation, all of whose physical assets had an actual situs within the state of Arkansas. It is further stipulated that during said period the property of the company assessed in Arkansas was valued for taxation in the several counties in which it was located at an amount equal to the actual average assessment of other similar property in the state of Arkansas.

"Provided it is further agreed that, if the court holds that the company as a foreign corporation is in any event taxable in Arkansas upon its intangible property or its...