State ex rel. Pullman Palace Car Co. v. St. Louis Cnty.

• Decision Date: 31 October 1884
• Citation: 84 Mo. 234
• Parties: THE STATE ex rel. THE PULLMAN PALACE CAR COMPANY, Appellant, v. ST. LOUIS COUNTY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

84 Mo. 234

THE STATE ex rel. THE PULLMAN PALACE CAR COMPANY, Appellant,

v.ST. LOUIS COUNTY.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1884.

Appeal from St. Louis Court of Appeals.

AFFIRMED.

Hitchcock, Madill & Finkelnburg for appellant.

This proceeding, first in the county court, and then by certiorari in the circuit court, was the proper remedy in such case. State ex rel. Lee's Administrator v. St. Louis County Court, 47 Mo. 599. (2) These cars were part of the rolling stock of the railroads in question, and were assessable only under the provisions of the act of March 10, 1871 (Laws, p. 56). Said act was intended to provide a mode for taxing every kind of railroad property throughout this state, which should be not only uniform, but exclusive of all other modes of taxing such property by any state or municipal officer other than those authorized in said act. State v. Severance, 55 Mo. 378; Livingston County v. Hannibal & St. Jo. Railroad, 60 Mo. 520; Pacific Railroad v. Watson, 61 Mo. 61. This act was intended to apply to every description of property belonging to or used by railroad companies in operating their roads. State v. Severance, 55 Mo. 388; Pacific Railroad v. Watson, 61 Mo. 61. The word owned means such ownership, whether absolute or for a term of years, as makes the property in question part of the “machinery by which the railroad is operated.” State v. Severance, supra. (3) Under a similar statute in Illinois, it was held that Pullman cars leased to the railroad under leases identical with those in this case, were taxable to the railroad company and not to the Pullman company. Kennedy v. Railroad Co., 62 Ill. 395. (4) The act of March 24, 1873, (Laws 1873, p. 63), leads to precisely the opposite conclusion from that reached by the St. Louis court of appeals in this case.

Leverett Bell for respondent.

HENRY, C. J.

“The only question which arises upon this record is whether, under the act of March 10, 1871, relating to the taxation of railroad property, the cars of the Pullman Palace Car Company, which were leased by such company to certain railroads in this state, and operated by such railroads as a part of their rolling stock, were taxable as the property of such railroads; or, whether, under the general revenue law, then in force, such property might lawfully be assessed for taxation by the assessor of St. Louis county, in which the Pullman Palace Car Company had its chief office for the state of Missouri, as personal property.” The above is the statement made by the court of appeals of the question arising upon this record, and we accept it as a correct statement. That court held that the cars of the Pullman Palace Car Company did not belong to the railroad companies, which had leased them and were, therefore, not taxable, under the act of March 10, 1871, as the property of such railroad.

Section one of that act provides, that all railroads in this state, “and all other property, real, personal, or mixed, owned by any railroad company, or corporation in this state,” shall be assessed and taxed in the mode prescribed by that act, and that mode is different from that prescribed for assessing and taxing other railroad property. The solution of the question depends upon the meaning of the word “owned,” as employed in that section. Section 6662, Revised Statutes, 1879, article 1 of the general revenue law, provides that: “All personal property of whatsoever nature and character, situate in a county other than the one in which the owner resides, shall be...