State v. J.I. Case Company

• Decision Date: 26 May 1933
• Docket Number: 29,347
• Parties: STATE v. J.I. CASE COMPANY
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

248 N.W. 726

189 Minn. 180

STATE v. J.I. CASE COMPANY

No. 29,347

Supreme Court of Minnesota

May 26, 1933

Proceeding by the state in the district court for Kandiyohi county for the collection of delinquent personal property taxes assessed against defendant for the year 1930. The state demurred to defendant's answer to the citation, the demurrer was sustained, Harold Baker, Judge, and defendant appealed. Reversed.

SYLLABUS

Taxation -- possession and ownership of property -- one to whom taxable.

Defendant sold to a dealer under a conditional sale contract farm machinery and implements which on the taxing day were in the dealer's possession for sale. It is held that such property was not taxable to the defendant under the circumstances stated in the record and that the state's demurrer to the answer to the citation should not have been sustained.

Hosp Gibson & Vesely, for appellant.

Charles A. Swenson, County Attorney, for the state.

OPINION

DIBELL, Justice.

Proceedings in Kandiyohi county for the collection of personal property taxes assessed against the defendant. The defendant answered the citation. The state demurred to the answer. The demurrer was sustained, and the defendant appeals.

The defendant is a corporation having its principal place of business in Minneapolis. It deals in farm machinery and implements. The Tolen Implement Company does business in the village of Raymond in Kandiyohi county. During 1930 it was the authorized dealer of defendant for the sale and distribution of its farming implements and machinery under a contract the important part of which is as follows:

"Goods purchased by dealer during the term of this contract shall be resold by dealer only in the ordinary course of trade at retail, and the title to and ownership of all such goods until sold in the manner aforesaid, together with the proceeds of goods sold, whether in cash, notes, book accounts or otherwise, shall be and remain in the J.I. Case Company, subject to its order until full payment in cash shall be made to it for said goods, and dealer expressly authorizes and empowers J.I. Case Company at any time to possess itself of the proceeds of any goods resold, and to hold the same to the order of J.I. Case Company and, upon its request, dealer agrees to execute all necessary endorsements and assignments fully to vest J.I. Case Company with all of such proceeds as collateral security for the payment of the purchase price by dealer in the event that such goods have not been paid for prior to the resale by him. Upon the payment by dealer of the purchase price of any goods purchased under this contract, J.I. Case Company agrees to re-transfer and revest dealer with title to the proceeds of the sale of such goods."

The contract was filed in the office of the register of deeds of Kandiyohi county. See 2 Mason Minn. St. 1927, § 8360. The question is whether the property covered by the contract was taxable to the defendant in Kandiyohi county on May 1, 1930. The first day of May is the assessing day, and the property assessed to the defendant was then in the possession of the Tolen Implement Company at Raymond. It remained in its possession until sold on June 12 following.

The contract is within the class commonly designated conditional sale contracts. It may be in some respects peculiar. It contemplated that the vendee would resell and that the defendant would have the security which might come on resale.

It is the general rule that property in the possession of the vendee under a contract similar to that before us is taxable against the vendee in possession, and...