Wrought Iron Range Co. v. Rich

• Decision Date: 09 October 1919
• Parties: WROUGHT IRON RANGE COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant, v. HEBER C. C. RICH, Respondent
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

184 P. 627

32 Idaho 453

WROUGHT IRON RANGE COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant, v. HEBER C. C. RICH, Respondent

Supreme Court of Idaho

October 9, 1919

TAXATION-CONDITIONAL SALES-INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

1. Each of sixty-six persons ordered a range from the manufacturer and in payment for it gave a promissory note in which was expressed the condition that it should be void only in case of refusal to make delivery. The transactions were conditional sales and the ranges remained the property of the manufacturer until the deliveries were made.

2. Property which has been shipped from one state into another has reached its destination, and has been unloaded from the car preparatory to being delivered pursuant to a conditional sale contract, is no longer in interstate commerce, but is a part of the mass of taxable property within the state of its destination.

[As to retention of title by seller until payment, see note in 46 Am.St. 295]

APPEAL from the District Court of the Sixth Judicial District, for Bingham County. Hon. F. J. Cowen, Judge.

Action to recover tax paid under protest. Judgment for defendant. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed. Costs awarded to respondent.

Hansbrough & Gagon, for Appellant.

Property that is shipped from another state into this state and placed in stores for general sale to the general public becomes mingled with the property of the state and is taxable under the state laws, but property that is sold by a corporation or individual in a foreign state, prior to its shipment, and is shipped into the state merely for the purpose of delivery, is not taxable, and to tax it is an unlawful interference and violation of the interstate commerce laws. (Wrought Iron Range Co. v. Campen, 135 N.C. 506, 47 S.E. 658; Robbins v. Shelby County Taxing District, 120 U.S 489, 7 S.Ct. 592, 30 L.Ed. 694; Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. (U.S.) 419, 6 L.Ed. 678; Norfolk & W. R. Co. v Sims, 191 U.S. 441, 24 S.Ct. 151, 48 L.Ed. 254, see, also, Rose's U.S. Notes.)

R. L. Black, Attorney General, A. F. Stone and Dean Driscoll, Assistants, and Ralph W. Adair, for Respondent.

"All personal property consigned to any person within this state from any place out of this state must be assessed as other property; and all property in transit to any county in this state must be assessed at its destination or in any county where it remains thirty days." (Sec. 1669, Rev. Codes; Parks Bros. & Co. v. Nez Perce County, 13 Idaho 298, 121 Am. St. 261, 12 Ann. Cas. 1113, 89 P. 949; Austin v. Tennessee, 179 U.S. 343, 21 S.Ct. 132, 45 L.Ed. 224; May v. New Orleans, 51 La. Ann. 1064, 25 So. 959; F. May & Co. v. New Orleans, 178 U.S. 496, 20 S.Ct. 976, 44 L.Ed. 1165, see, also, Rose's U.S. Notes.)

The sale of the stoves in the case at bar was not consummated, but was simply an executory contract of sale; it could not be an executed contract until the delivery of the stoves to the purchasers. (Idaho Implement Co. v. Lambach, 16 Idaho 497, 101 P. 951.)

MORGAN, C. J. Rice and Budge, JJ., concur.

OPINION

MORGAN, C. J.

--Appellant, a corporation engaged at St. Louis, Missouri, in manufacturing ranges and in selling them throughout the country, consigned to itself at Blackfoot, in Bingham county, a carload consisting of sixty-six ranges and fixtures, which were not marked in any way whereby they might be severally described or distinguished one from another. Prior to making the shipment an agent of appellant had taken orders from residents of Bingham county for each of the ranges and had taken promissory notes in payment therefor, each of which contained the following provision:

"This note is given for one 'Home Comfort' Range No. , which this day purchased from said Wrought Iron Range Company, to be delivered at premises within sixty days from this date. This note to be void only upon the condition that said Wrought Iron Range Company refuses to deliver the said 'Home Comfort' Range as above specified, and for no other cause whatever."

When the car arrived at Blackfoot appellant's agent...