Weir v. Norman
Citation | 166 U.S. 171,17 S.Ct. 527,41 L.Ed. 960 |
Decision Date | 15 March 1897 |
Docket Number | No. 586,586 |
Parties | WEIR v. NORMAN |
Court | United States Supreme Court |
This was a bill filed in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Kentucky on behalf of the Adams Express Company to enjoin the collection and certification of taxes against it for the year 1895 under an act of Kentucky of November 11, 1892, entitled 'An act relating to revenue and taxation,' carried forward as chapter 108 of the compilation of the Kentucky Statutes of 1894, p. 1291. The case comes to this court on appeal from a decree of the circuit court sustaining a demurrer and dismissing the bill as amended. The decree proceeded on the grounds stated by Judge Barr in the opinion of the court in Telegraph Co. v. Norman, 77 Fed. 13.
The bill charged the statute of Kentucky under which the tax complained of was levied to be in contravention of the constitution of the United States, and also of sections 171, 172, and 174 of the constitution of Kentucky. Similar averments to those considered in Adams Exp. Co. v. Ohio State Auditor (Sanford v. Poe) 165 U. S. 194, 17 Sup. Ct. 305, appear in this bill, and need not be repeated at length. It is stated that the Adams Express Company had no property in the state of Kentucky in the year 1895, except certain horses, wagons, harness, trucks, safes, office fixtures, and other appliances, located at different points in the state, and that all of said property, including the moneys and credits of the company within the state, were duly returned and assessed for state, county, municipal, and other purposes; that the said cash value of the same was $36,614.53, and that the taxes thereon were duly paid; and that the tax complained of is an assessment for state, county, municipal, and other purposes on the further sum of $1,463,040.
Sections 171, 172, 174, and 181 of the constitution are as follows:
Sections 190 to 208 refer to corporations, the latter section reading: 'The word corporation as used in this constitution shall embrace joint stock companies and associations.'
Chapter 108 of the compilation of 1894 is divided into articles as well as sections, and may be referred to by way of con- venience. There are some slight differences from the act of 1892, not material to be noted. The first article contains the general provisions relating to the assessment and collection of taxes 'upon all property.'
Sections 4019 and 4020 are as follows:
'Sec. 4019. An annual tax of forty-two and one-half cents upon each one hundred dollars of value of all property directed to be assessed for taxation, as hereinafter provided, shall be paid by the owner, person or corporation assessed. The aggregate amount of tax realized by all assessments shall be for the following purposes: Fifteen (15) cents for the ordinary expenses of the government; five (5) cents for the use of the sinking fund; twenty-two (22) cents for the support of the common schools, and one-half of one cent for the Agricultural and Mechanical College, as now provided by law, by an act entitled 'An act for the benefit of the Agricultural and Mechanical College,' approved April twenty-ninth, one thousand eight hundred and eighty, including the necessary traveling expenses of all pupils of the state entitled to free tuition in said college, and who continue students for the period of ten months, unless unavoidably prevented.
Article 2 relates to the assessment of property by the assessors, to whom every person in the commonwealth must give in a list of all his property under oath.
Section 4058 provides for schedules with interrogatories to be propounded to each person, 'with affidavit thereto attached, to be signed and sworn to by the person whose property is assessed.' The schedules contain a long list of items, including all forms of tangible and intangible, real, personal, and mixed property; the enumeration being exceedingly minute. The first eleven items relate to bonds, notes secured by mortgage, other notes, accounts, cash on hand, cash on deposit in bank, cash on deposit with other corporations, cash on deposit with individuals, all other credits or money at interest, stock in joint-stock companies or associations, stock in foreign corporations.
The third article covers the assessment of corporations, corporations generally, banks and trust companies, building and loan associations, turnpikes.
Sections 4077, 4078, 4079, 4080, 4081, 4082, and 4091 are as follows:
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