Texas Gas Transmission Corp. v. Atkins
| Decision Date | 03 September 1959 |
| Parties | , 205 Tenn. 495 TEXAS GAS TRANSMISSION CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Z. D. ATKINS, etc., Appellee. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Edward P. Russell and J. Martin Regan, Memphis, for appellant.
George F. McCanless, Atty. Gen., Allison B. Humphreys, Solicitor General, Nashville, Milton C. Rice, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
These are four suits for the purpose of recovering the franchise and excise taxes paid for the years 1955 and 1956 by Texas Gas Transmission Corporation, hereinafter referred to Texas. Said taxes were collected under T.C.A. Secs. 67-2701 et seq. and 67-2901 et seq. The Chancellor dismissed the bills and hence this appeal.
These suits really are a continuation of the unsuccessful efforts heretofore of complainant, or its predecessor, Memphis Natural Gas Company, to prevent the payment of these taxes under the claim of exemption by reason of the commerce clause of the Federal Constitution, art. 1, Sec. 8, cl. 3. The prior suits are: Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Pope, 178 Tenn. 580, 161 S.W.2d 211, affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Beeler, 315 U.S. 649, 62 S.Ct. 857, 86 L.Ed. 1090; Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. McCanless, 180 Tenn. 695, 177 S.W.2d 843, certiorari denied by Supreme Court of United States 323 U.S. 785, 65 S.Ct. 275, 89 L.Ed. 626; Texas Gas Transmission Corp. v. Atkins, 197 Tenn. 123, 270 S.W.2d 384, petition for certiorari denied by Supreme Court of the United States 348 U.S. 883, 75 S.Ct. 125, 99 L.Ed. 694.
The facts in the present case are substantially the same as those stated in the Atkins case, supra, except that following the final decision of the United States Supreme Court affirming this Court, Texas withdrew its corporate charter from Tennessee. It should be stated also that in 1955 and 1956 respectively its properties in Tennessee were assessed at $8,000,000 and $8,200,000, on which it has paid taxes to relevant counties and cities; but as the State does not impose a property tax, none has been paid to the State.
It also appears that Texas maintains two compressor stations along its line of 405 miles length in Tennessee, maintains two crews of workmen to service the line, has a substantial staff of administrative employees in the City of Memphis, delivers gas as described in the prior case; further, it holds 38 highway permits, 21 county permits and 6 county drainage permits.
Texas is not engaged in intrastate commerce in Tennessee, but in interstate commerce only.
In 1955 the Legislature by Chs. 185 and 183 amended respectively the excise and franchise tax laws by adding to each the following:
'Every such taxable entity organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of this or any other state, territory or country, or organized and existing without any specific statutory authority, now or hereafter doing business within this state, without domesticating or qualifying to do business in this state, or while its charter is forfeited, revoked or suspended, shall as a recompense for the protection of its local activities and as compensation for the benefits it receives from doing business in Tennessee, pay the tax imposed by this article.'
The insistence in behalf of Texas, as we understand it from the brief, is that it is engaged solely in interstate commerce; that it receives no protection of its properties in this State nor protection of its activities other than the normal protection given to properties and business activities in general in the State; that it has received no benefits from doing business in the State other than such benefits as a corporation solely engaged in interstate business receives. Further, it is insisted that the expression 'doing business' in the 1955 amendment to the franchise and excise tax statutes has reference only to intrastate business and hence has no application to Texas doing only an interstate business. That if it be applied to interstate business, then under the case of Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. O'Connor, 340 U.S. 602, 71 S.Ct. 508, 95 L.Ed. 573, and many other cases, the tax would be invalid. It is further and particularly insisted and stressed that the words 'local activities' in the 1955 amendment has long been considered as synonymous with the expression 'intrastate commerce'. Further, that if on the other hand the expression 'local activities' is taken in a broad sense to mean all of the acts which take place in Tennessee, then the language would run afoul of the commerce clause.
Referring first to the question of the meaning of 'local activities', we think that counsel perhaps fails to consider...
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State v. Powers
...rule that one must presume that the legislature did not enact useless or meaningless legislation. See Tex. Gas Transmission Corp. v. Atkins, 205 Tenn. 495, 327 S.W.2d 305, 307 (1959). However, we find this argument unconvincing. By adding the Adams factors to the statute, the legislature wa......
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Lind v. Beaman Dodge, Inc.
...we presume that the General Assembly did not intend to enact meaningless or useless legislation, Texas Gas Transmission Corp. v. Atkins, 205 Tenn. 495, 327 S.W.2d 305, 307 (1959), it is our view that until the judicial declaration of insolvency is made, or until one of the other two excepti......
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Maury Reg. Hosp. v. Tn State Bd. of Equal.
..."The Legislature must be presumed not to have intended to do a useless and vain thing; . . . ." Texas Gas Transmission Corp. v. Atkins, 205 Tenn. 495, 327 S.W.2d 305, 307 (1959); State v. Jackson, 60 S.W.3d 738, 742 (Tenn.2001). As a general rule of statutory construction, a change in the l......
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Rittenberry v. Lewis
...50 Am.Jur., Statutes, Sec. 404. The legislature will not be presumed to have done a useless and vain thing. Texas Gas Transmission Corp. v. Atkins, 205 Tenn. 495, 327 S.W. 2d 305. The Court is of the opinion, therefore, that the statutory amendment contemplated and was sufficient to accompl......