United States v. Harriet Goelet, No 631 United States v. Harriet Goelet No 632

• Decision Date: 24 February 1914
• Docket Number: Nos. 631 and 632,s. 631 and 632
• Citation: 58 L.Ed. 670,34 S.Ct. 431,232 U.S. 293
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. HARRIET GOELET, NO 631. UNITED STATES v. HARRIET GOELET. NO 632
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

232 U.S. 293

34 S.Ct. 431

58 L.Ed. 670

UNITED STATES

v HARRIET GOELET,

NO 631.

UNITED STATES

v. HARRIET GOELET.

NO 632.

Nos. 631 and 632.

Argued January 6 and 7, 1914.

Decided February 24, 1914.

Death of Harriet Goelet suggested, and appearance of Robert Walton Goelet, as executor under the last will and testament of Harriet Goelet, filed and entered January 7, 1914, as a party herein.

Assistant Attorney General Adkins and Mr. Karl W. Kirchwey for the United States.

Mr. William D. Guthrie for Harriet Goelet.

Mr. Chief Justice White delivered the opinion of the court:

The questions asked in both of these cases relate to § 37 of the tariff act of 1909 [36 Stat. at L. 112, chap. 6, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 1197], which we have construed in several opinions just announced. They both concern the sum of excise duties levied on the foreign-built yacht Nahma, the one assessed for the year ending on the 1st of September, 1909, and the other on the 1st of September, 1910. The cases were decided by the trial court at the same time with other cases for a like period, the case relating to the tax for 1909 having been submitted on bill and answer as a result of the overruling a demurrer filed by the government to the answer of the defendant and the election to plead no further, and the case involving the levy for 1910 having been decided by the court along with other cases wthout the intervention of a jury, as the result of a stipulation between the parties. The certificate fully states the situation as to both periods of taxation, conforming to the conditions of fact which we have recapitulated in the opinions in the two Billings Cases [232 U. S. 421, 58 L. ed. ——, 34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 421] AND THE QUESTIONS ASKED CONCERNING THE COnstruction of the statute, its operation and its constitutionality, involve all the subject-matters which we have disposed of in the previous opinions. In both of these cases, however, differing from those which we have previously decided, in the pleadings concerning the 1909 tax it was expressly averred, and by the demurrer conceded, that the owner of the yacht, at least for a year prior to the levy of the tax, was domiciled in a foreign country, and that the yacht whose use was taxed had a permanent situs in such country, and, so far as the levy for 1910 is concerned, that state of things, as shown by the certificate, was expressly covered by the findings of fact; and if the opinion of the trial court be considered, it will appear that it was one of these peculiarities of fact, that is, the permanent domicil abroad, which led that court, instead of deciding in favor of the tax, to hold that as to both periods it was unauthorized by the statute. To make the situation perfectly clear we quote from the certificate in the case concerning the 1909 tax (No. 631) the exact language of the answer on the subjects just stated, the equivalent of which is embraced in the case involving the 1910 tax (No. 632), as follows:

'That the defendant was, on September 1, 1909, and for several years prior thereto had been, permanently a resident of and domiciled at Paris, in the Republic of France; and that since 1901 her said yacht had not been within the jurisdiction of the United States, but had had a permanent situs within the jurisdiction of Great Britain.'

For the purpose of enabling it to determine the influence of the facts thus stated upon the decision of these two cases, the court, in its certificate, in addition to many questions involving the issues of construction and constitutionality which we have disposed of in the other cases, asks two questions whose order of statement we rearrange as follows:

'II. Does the tax purporting to be imposed by said act of Congress apply to the use of a foreign-built yacht owned by a citizen of the United States who was permanently resident and domiciled in a foreign country for more than one year prior to September 1, 1909, and to the levy of such tax?

'I. Does the tax purporting to be imposed by § 37 of the act of Congress, approved August 5, 1909, apply to the use of a foreign-built yacht owned by a citizen of...