Wilson v. Cook Cook v. Wilson

Citation66 S.Ct. 663,327 U.S. 474,90 L.Ed. 793
Decision Date22 April 1946
Docket NumberNos. 328 and 329,s. 328 and 329
PartiesWILSON et al. v. COOK, Commissioner of Revenues of Arkansas. COOK, Commissioner of Revenues of Arkansas, v. WILSON et al. Mandate Conformed to
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Appeal from and Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of arkansas.

[Syllabus from pages 474-476 intentionally omitted] Mr.O. T. Ward, of Little Rock, Ark., for Cook, Commissioner of revenue, etc.

Mr. William J. Kirby, of Little Rock, Ark., for Wilson et al., etc.

Mr. Chief Justice STONE delivered the opinion of the Court.

An Arkansas statute, Act 118 of 1923, Pope's Digest, Arkansas Statutes 1937, § 13371, imposes 'a privilege or license tax * * * upon each person * * * engaged in the business of * * * severing from the soil * * * for commercial purposes natural resources, including * * * timber.' By § 13372, as a condition of the license, there is imposed on the severer an obligation to pay the tax and consent that the tax 'shall * * * remain a lien on each unit of production until paid into the State Treasury.' Section 13375 fixes the tax at 7 cents per thousand feet of the timber severed. Section 13376 provides that the state 'shall have a lien upon any and all natural resources severed from the soil.' In § 13382 it is provided that 'the payment of said privilege taxes shall be required of the severer * * * actually engaged in the operation of severing natural products, whether as owner, lessee, concessionaire or contractor. The reporting taxpayer shall collect or withhold out of the proceeds of the sale of the products severed the proportionate parts of the total tax due by the respective owners of such natural resources at the time of severance.'

Appellants in No. 328 a copartnership, entered into contracts with the United States for the purchase and severance of timber on national forest reserves located within the state, some of which were public lands of the United States when Arkansas was admitted to statehood and some of which were acquired by the United States by purchase with the consent of the state. The contracts of severance and purchase provided that 'title to all timber included in this agreement shall remain in the United States until it is paid for, and scaled, measured or counted.' By the contracts the appellants were required in advance of severance to place with the Government representative advance installments of the estimated purchase price.

In the years 1937 to 1942, appellants, proceeding under their contract, severed timber from the forest reserves in question. An execution having been issued and delivered to the county sheriff, appellee in No. 328, and also appellant in No. 329, for collection of the tax assessed against appellants in No. 328 for the years in question, they brought the present suit in the state chancery court to enjoin the collection. The questions on which the parties ask decision are (a) whether the forest reserves which were public lands of the United States before Arkansas was admitted to statehood are subject to the taxing jurisdiction of the state; (b) whether the forest reserves acquired by the United States by purchase remain subject to the taxing authority of the state; and (c) whether the tax is unconstitutional as a tax laid upon the property or activities of the United States, or because the tax laid on plaintiffs imposed an unconstitutional burden on the United States.

The chancery court gave judgment for plaintiffs enjoining collection of the tax. It held that if the tax 'be applied' to plaintiffs, it 'would be a tax upon the operations of the Government of the United States,' and that the tax 'does not apply to timber severed by the plaintiffs from the National Forest.' On appeal the Supreme Court of Arkansas modified the judgment, holding that the state was without authority to lay a tax on the severance of timber from lands which were public lands of the United States when Arkansas was admitted to statehood; that the authority of the state to lay the tax extended to transactions occurring on the forest reserve acquired by the United Stat § by purchase; and that the present tax assessed against plaintiffs for the severance of timber on forest reserves of this class did not lay an unconstitutional burden on the United States. 187 S.W.2d 7.

Plaintiffs have appealed, in No. 328, from so much of the judgment as sustained the tax with respect to lands acquired by the United States by purchase, urging in their assignments of error that the Supreme Court of Arkansas erred in reversing the judgment of the chancery court, 'which held to be void the severance tax statute', and in holding that the severance tax law is not repugnant to the supremacy clause, Art. VI, cl. 2 of the Constitution, or to Art. IV, § 3, cl. 2, conferring on Congress power to dispose of 'and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting * * * Property belonging to the United States.' Defendant, appellant in No. 329, seeks by his appeal to reverse so much of the judgment as denied the right to levy the tax for severance of timber from forest lands reserved from the public domain. On submission of the jurisdictional statements in this Court we postponed to the hearing on the merits consideration of our jurisdiction in No. 328. In No. 329 we dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction. § 237(a) of the Judicial Code as amended, 28 U.S.C. § 344(a), 28 U.S.C.A. § 344(a). Treating the papers on which the ap- peal was allowed as a petition for writ of certiorari, as required by § 237(a) of the Judicial Code as amended, we granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 685, 66 S.Ct. 57.

Under § 237 of the Judicial Code we are without jurisdiction of the appeal in No. 328, unless there was 'drawn in question' before the Supreme Court of Arkansas 'the validity of a * * * statute' of the state, 'on the ground of its being repugnant to the Constitution, * * * or laws of the United States.' The purpose of this requirement is to restrict our mandatory jurisdiction on appeal, Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Beeler, 315 U.S. 649, 651, 62 S.Ct. 857, 859, 86 L.Ed. 1090, and to make certain that no judgment of a state court will be reviewed on appeal by this Court unless the highest court of the state has first been apprised that a state statute is being assailed as invalid on federal grounds, Charleston Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Alderson, 324 U.S. 182, 185, 186, 65 S.Ct. 624, 627, and cases cited, or, when the statute, as applied, is so assailed, until it has opportunity authoritatively to construe it. Fiske v. Kansas, 274 U.S. 380, 385, 47 S.Ct. 655, 656, 71 L.Ed. 1108, and cases cited. This jurisdictional requirement is satisfied only if the record shows that the question of the validity under federal law of the state statute, as construed and applied, has either been presented for decision to the highest court of the state, Wall v. Chesapeake & Ohio R. Co., 256 U.S. 125, 126, 41 S.Ct. 402, 403, 65 L.Ed. 856; Citizens Nat. Bank v. Durr, 257 U.S. 99, 106, 42 S.Ct. 15, 16, 66 L.Ed. 149; or has in fact been decided by it, Nickey v. Mississippi, 292 U.S. 393, 394, 54 S.Ct. 743, 78 L.Ed. 1323; Whitfield v. Ohio, 297 U.S. 431, 435, 436, 56 S.Ct. 532, 533, 80 L.Ed. 778, and that its decision was necessary to the judgment. Cuyahoga River Power Co. v. Northern Realty Co., 244 U.S. 300, 304, 37 S.Ct. 643, 645, 61 L.Ed. 1153, and cases cited. The record in this case does not disclose that at any time in the course of the proceedings in the state courts plaintiffs asserted the invalidity of a state statute on any federal ground. The bill of complaint in the chancery court set up only that the demand of the state for the tax 'is an illegal and void exaction' and 'is in violation of' Art. IV, § 3, cl. 2 and of Art VI, cl. 2 of the Constitution. There were no assignments of error in the Supreme Court of Arkansas.

As the record does not show that the plaintiffs presented for decision to the state Supreme Court any federal question, they have no appeal to this Court unless the opinion of the state Supreme Court shows that that court ruled on the validity of a state statute under the laws nd Constitution of the United States. Charleston Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Alderson, supra, 324 U.S. 185, 186, 65 S.Ct. 627, and cases cited. That court's opinion (187 S.W.2d 7, 9), while holding that the 'tax law' was applicable to 'persons severing timber from lands of the United States in the national forest,' does not indicate that plaintiffs raised there, or that the court passed upon, the validity of the statute as applied. The court considered only the validity of 'the tax,' not that of the statute.

With reference to plaintiffs' liability for the tax it decided only that the state 'has the right to collect the severance tax, so far as territorial jurisdiction is concerned,' for severance of timber from lands acquired by the United States by purchase, and that plaintiffs could not claim the benefits of the immunity, if any, of the Federal Government from 'the tax,' since it was imposed on plaintiffs, not the Government or its property. It said that the Government was not constitutionally immune from such economic burden as might be passed on from the taxpayer to the Government by reason of the effect of the tax paid by the severers, citing James v. Dravo Contracting Co., 302 U.S. 134, 58 S.Ct. 208, 82 L.Ed. 155, 114 A.L.R. 318, and State of Alabama v. King & Boozer, 314 U.S. 1, 62 S.Ct. 43, 86 L.,Ed. 3, 140 A.L.R. 615. Being asked to enjoin the collection of the tax, the state court contented itself with holding that the tax, which was assessed on plaintiffs and not the Government, imposed no burden on the Government which infringed its implied constitutional tax immunity. Since the collection of a tax by a state officer, as here, may or may not offend against the Constitution, independently of the constitutionality of a...

To continue reading

Request your trial
47 cases
  • Silkwood v. Gee Corporation
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 11 d3 Janeiro d3 1984
    ...----, 103 S.Ct., at 953; Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 244, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 1234, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958); Wilson v. Cook, 327 U.S. 474, 482, 66 S.Ct. 663, 667, 90 L.Ed. 793 (1946).9 See also County of Arlington v. United States, 669 F.2d 925 (CA4 1982) cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct......
  • Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Texas Co Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Magnolia Petroleum Co
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 7 d1 Março d1 1949
    ...from state taxation. There is no possibility that ultimate liability for the taxes may fall upon the owner of the land. Cf. Wilson v. Cook, 327 U.S. 474, dissenting opinion, 489, 66 S.Ct. 663, 670, 90 L.Ed. 793. Nor, as has been noted, do the cases involve challenges to the immunity from st......
  • Sanders v. United States
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 29 d1 Abril d1 1963
    ...factual allegations. So also, identical grounds may often be supported by different legal arguments, cf. Wilson v. Cook, 327 U.S. 474, 481, 66 S.Ct. 663, 667, 90 L.Ed. 793; Dewey v. Des Moines, 173 U.S. 193, 198, 19 S.Ct. 379, 380—381, 43 L.Ed. 665, or be couched in different language, Unit......
  • Hanson v. Denckla Lewis v. Hanson
    • United States
    • United States Supreme Court
    • 23 d1 Junho d1 1958
    ...the Federal Constitution.4 Accordingly, we are without jurisdiction of the appeal and it must be dismissed. Wilson v. Cook, 327 U.S. 474, 482, 66 S.Ct. 663, 667, 90 L.Ed. 793; Charleston Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n v. Alderson, 324 U.S. 182, 65 S.Ct. 624, 89 L.Ed. 857. Treating the papers whereo......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT