Taber v. Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Co., Case Number: 25794

• Court: Supreme Court of Oklahoma
• Writing for the Court: WELCH, J.
• Citation: 180 Okla. 323,1937 OK 398,69 P.2d 359
• Parties: TABER, County Treas. v. INDIAN TERRITORY ILLUMINATING OIL CO.
• Docket Number: Case Number: 25794
• Decision Date: 15 June 1937

1937 OK 398
69 P.2d 359
180 Okla. 323

TABER, County Treas.
v.
INDIAN TERRITORY ILLUMINATING OIL CO.

Case Number: 25794

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: June 15, 1937

Syllabus

¶0 1. TAXATION - Personalty Used in Operation of Oil and Gas Lease on Restricted Indian Land Held not Exempt From Ad Valorem Tax Because Lease Is Federal Instrumentality.

The imposition by a state of a nondiscriminatory ad valorem tax upon personal property used in operations under an oil and gas lease covering restricted Indian land is not precluded by the fact that the lease is a federal instrumentality.

2. SAME - Rules of Law Announced in Former Decision Superseded.

The rules of law announced in Taber v. Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, 177 Okla. 67, 57 P.2d 1167, are expressly superseded and withdrawn.

Appeal from District Court, Payne County; Freeman E. Miller, Judge.
Action by the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company against George W. Taber, Treasurer of Payne County. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

Guy L. Horton, County Attorney, for plaintiff in error.

W.P. McGinnis, Fred M. Carter, Archibald Bonds, and Donald Prentice, for defendant in error.

WELCH, J.

¶1 This is an appeal by the county treasurer of Payne county from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, for refund of taxes paid under protest.

¶2 The controlling question is whether the property assessed, and upon which the tax was levied, is taxable by the state of Oklahoma, or its political subdivision. The property in question consisted of certain items of personal property used in the operation of an oil and gas lease on restricted Indian land.

¶3 The plaintiff contends that the property was exempt from taxation because to permit the state to impose a tax on the property would burden a federal governmental instrumentality, and that because the oil and gas lease was a federal instrumentality the property here involved and used on such lease was exempt from state ad valorem taxation.

¶4 This court by a majority opinion adopted that view in the first opinion in this case, 177 Okla. 67, 57 P.2d 1167.

¶5 Upon appeal, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the judgment of this court, and remanded the cause. See Taber v. Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company, 300 U.S. 1, 81 L.Ed. §§§.

¶6 It is the duty of this court to follow the Supreme Court of the United States to the conclusion that the imposition by a state of...