Bridgewater Manufacturing Co. v. Funkhouser

79 S.E. 1074, 115 Va. 476, 1913 Va. LEXIS 58
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedNovember 20, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 79 S.E. 1074 (Bridgewater Manufacturing Co. v. Funkhouser) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bridgewater Manufacturing Co. v. Funkhouser, 79 S.E. 1074, 115 Va. 476, 1913 Va. LEXIS 58 (Va. 1913).

Opinion

Harrison, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This proceeding was instituted in the circuit court of Rockingham county by the Bridgewater Manufacturing Company to have corrected an alleged erroneous assess^ ment of taxes imposed upon it,, which relief was denied by the circuit court.

The record shows that the complainant is a corporation, with its chief office and place of business located in Bridge-water, Rockingham county. The chief business of the company is the operation of two flour mills and one woolen mill at Bridgewater. This company paid for the year 1912 the assessments collectable through the Corporation Commission, but did not report anything and was not assessed with anything on the personal property assessment books for that year. At the November term of the circuit court, a special grand jury was impaneled; to examine the books of assessment as required by section 578 of the Code of [478]*4781904. Among the persons summoned before the grand jury was the manager of the complainant company, who informed the jury that the total running capital of the company invested in its business as of July 1, 1912, was $16,-703; that of this sum $14,000 was borrowed money; that the company could not tell what amount it had in its business as running capital as of February 1, 1912, but that it was not less than it was on July 1, 1912. Thereupon the grand jury directed the commissioner of the revenue for Ashby district, in which the company and its business was located, to assess the company for taxation with $16,703, the amount it had in its business as running capital during the year 1912. The aggregate tax imposed upon this assessment was $229.64, being $58.45 for State purposes, $66.81 for county purposes, and $104.38 for district purposes.

The complainants make several technical objections to the time and method of this assessment, insisting that it was not made according to law. These objections are without merit. The underlying principle in such cases is that a person whose property is liable to assessment for taxes shall not be permitted to evade payment of his just proportion of the public burden by any errors, omissions or irregularities that do not prejudice his rights. Stevenson v. Henkle, 100 Va. 591, 595, 42 S. E. 672; Yellow Poplar Co. v. Thompson, 108 Va. 612, 62 S. E. 358; Coles v. Jamerson, 112 Va. 311, 71 S. E. 618.

It is clear from the record that the objections are not well taken and that the complainant suffered no prejudice from the method of assessing the taxes it now seeks to avoid.

There is no foundation for the contention that the law does not tax the capital 'employed in the'business of a miller or other manufacturer. That such capital is taxed clearly appears from Schedule O, section 8, of the tax bill. Code, p. 2193.

[479]*479Upon the merits of this controversy, the complainant contends that under sub-section 3, of section 8, Schedule C of the tax bill, Code, p. 2193, the capital taxed is the original capital paid in by the shareholders on the purchase of their stock, less the amount invested in real estate and the money borrowed by the company to be used in conducting its business. This position cannot be sustained. The nominal capitalization of the company which is divided into, shares and sold or distributed to shareholders does not necessarily bear any relation or proportion to the actual amount of capital used in the business. A corporation may and often is doing an enormous business with a vast capital employed, although its stockholders have paid in little or nothing. The capital stock of a company must be clearly distinguished from the amount of capital invested in its business, or the amount of property possessed by it. 1 Cook on Corporations, sec. 8.

The third and fourth sub-sections of section 8, Schedule C, of the tax bill, are as follows:

“Third.—Capital of incorporated joint stock companies not otherwise taxed; and when all of such capital is taxed by the State of Virginia, the shares of the stock in the hands of individual shareholders shall not be further taxed for State purposes; but real estate belonging to such companies shall not be held to be capital, but shall be listed and taxed as property, and not as capital.
“Fourth.—Capital of individuals invested, used or employed in any trade or business not otherwise taxed. Moneys and credits actively used and employed in carrying on the trade or business; materials, goods, wares and merchandise on hand, and all solvent bonds, demands, or claims made or contracted in the course of business durina the preceding year, shall be held to be capital in such trade or business, and shall not be taxed otherwise than as such capital; but real estate shall not be listed as such capital, but shall be assessed and taxed as other specific property.”

[480]*480Bub-sections 2, 3 and 4 of section 8 of tbe tax bill each deals with capital, sub-section 4 defining the term capital to be investments “used or employed in any trade or business not otherwise taxed. Moneys and credits actively used and employed in carrying on the trade or business; materials, goods, wares and merchandise on hand, and all solvent bonds, demands or claims made or contracted in the course of business, during the- preceding year, shall be held to be capital in such trade or business, and shall not be taxed otherwise than as such capital; but real estate shall not be listed as such capital, but shall be assessed and taxed as other specific property.”

The terms capital is found in two other sections of the tax bill—that relating to merchants’ licenses (Code, p. 2220), and in the section relating to oyster-packers’ licenses (Code, p. 2222)—and in each of these sections the foregoing definition of capital is repeated. Sub-sections 2, 3 and 4 of section 8 of the tax bill appear together, and in the last the term capital, which is used in each, is defined. There being nothing in the context to show a contrary intention, it would seem to be clear that the meaning of capital, as defined in sub-section 4, was intended to apply also to capital as used in the preceding sub-sections 2 and 3.

It is a rule of construction that when the same word is used in different parts of the same statute, the presumption is that it was used in the same sense throughout the statute, unless a contrary intention clearly appears. Postal Tel. Co. v. Farmville, &c., 96 Va. 661, 664, 32 S. E. 468.

To say that the meaning of “capital,” as defined in subsection 4, applied only to individuals would be to hold that the General Assembly intended to impose a less tax on corporations than on individuals' for carrying on the same business. The provisions of the tax bill under consideration furnish no ground for such a conclusion. There is no [481]*481difference between a business as conducted by a corporation' and tbe same business as conducted by an individual that would warrant any different meaning to be given to tbe term capital in tbe two cases. Any such discrimination would be a violation of the requirement of the Constitution, that “all property, except as hereinafter provided, shall b’e taxed; all taxes, whether State, local or municipal, shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects.” Ya. Const., Art. 13, sec. 168.

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Bluebook (online)
79 S.E. 1074, 115 Va. 476, 1913 Va. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bridgewater-manufacturing-co-v-funkhouser-va-1913.