Col-Tex Refining Co. v. Hart

144 S.W.2d 909
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 11, 1940
DocketNo. 2099
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 144 S.W.2d 909 (Col-Tex Refining Co. v. Hart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Col-Tex Refining Co. v. Hart, 144 S.W.2d 909 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

LESLIE, Chief Justice.

The Col-Tex Refining Company, a private corporation, instituted this suit against Bruce Hart, tax collector and assessor of Mitchell County, and others, seeking an injunction against said officials to restrain them from collecting an intangible tax imposed upon it by virtue of Art. 7105, Vernon’s Ann. Civil Statutes, against the pipe line operated by the plaintiff. A trial was had before the court without a jury and resulted in judgment refusing plaintiff the relief prayed for. There are findings of fact and conclusions of law in the record. From the judgment the Refining Company appeals. The parties will be referred to as in the trial court.

According to the undisputed evidence in the case, the plaintiff owns in connection with its refinery about 65 miles of pipe line in Mitchell, Howard and Glasscock Counties. All the oil that passes through said pipe line is first purchased by the plaintiff from producers in the different fields and it is then transported through such lines to said refinery owned and operated by the plaintiff, Col-Tex Refining Company, at Colorado, Texas.

There is only one question for decision in the case, and that is: Poes said Art. 7105 apply to the type of pipe line owned and so used by said Refining Company? The pipe line is used exclusively for the transportation of its own oil to its refinery for the purpose of refining the same. The plaintiff contends that it is not subject to the intangible tax for the reason, as asserted by it, that only pipe line companies which operate pipe lines for hire are subject to said tax, whereas, the plaintiff uses its gathering system as a mere facility to' its refining business, and does not thereby bring itself within the provisions of said article. On the other hand, the defendants assert that the terms of Art. 7105 apply to pipe lines operated under the same conditions as the one by-the Col-Tex Refining Company.

Article 7105 reads as follows: “Each incorporated railroad company, ferry company, bridge company, turnpike or toll company, oil pipe line company, and all common carrier pipe Une companies of every character whatsoever, engaged im the transportation of oil, doing business wholly or in part within this State, whether incorporated under the laws of this State, or of any other State, territory, or foreign country, and every other individual, company, corporation or association doing business of the same character m this State, in addition to the ad valorem taxes on tangible properties which, are or may be imposed upon them respectively, by law, shall pay an annual tax to the State, beginning with the first day of January of each year, on their intangible assets and property, and local taxes thereon to the counties in which its business is carried on; which additional tax shall be assessed and levied upon such intangible assets and property in the manner provided in .this chapter. The county or counties in which such taxes are to be paid, and the manner of apportionment of the same, shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.' Acts 1905, p. 35; Acts-1907, 1st C.S., p. 469; Acts 1933, 43rd Leg., p. 409, ch. 162, § 12.” (Italics ours.)

It, therefore, becomes necessary to construe the above article in order to determine whether or not the plaintiff’s pipelines making up its gathering system and. the use made thereof bring the same within said provision of the statute, subjecting-the company to the payment of the intangible tax apportionable to that part of the system lying in Mitchell County itself, as determined by the State Tax Board.

In order to bring the appellant within the terms of Art. 7105 it must be held that it is an (incorporated) “oil pipe line company”, or that it is a “common carrier pipe line company” of some character, or that it is “doing business” in this State of the “same character” as one or the other concerns before mentioned. This is obvious from a fair consideration of the italicized parts of said article.

[911]*911The undisputed testimony, as well as the findings of the trial court, establish that the plaintiff is neither an incorporated oil pipe line company, nor a common carrier oil pipe line company, as designated in the statute. It thus becomes material to ascertain whether or not plaintiff is doing business in this State of the same character as an incorporated oil pipe line company, or a common carrier pipe line company.

A reference to the history of the intangible tax law may be of value at this point. It was originally passed 1905. The law was amended in 1907 and again in 1933. The 1933 amendment inserted for the first time the following words: “oil pipe line company and all common carrier pipe line companies of every character whatsoever, engaged in the transportation of oil.” Acts 1933, 43d Leg. p. 409, chap. 162, § 12. Not until that time does it appear that the growing pipe line business engaged in the transportation of oil attracted the attention of the tax raising authorities of this State, especially by the application of the intangible tax. This tax measure (amenda-tory act of 1933) incorporating in the original intangible tax the language—“oil pipe line company and all common carrier pipe line companies of every character whatsoever, engaged in the transportation of oil”—expressed its legislative intent and purpose in the following provision: “The purpose hereof is to place all common carrier oil pipe line companies under- all of the provisions of the Intangible Asset Tax Laws of this State; and, for the purpose of placing under said act all taxpayers similarly situated, and to bring about a better classification and a wider distribution of the burdens of taxation, as far as this class of taxpayers is concerned.”

In this language the purpose of the act is clearly expressed. It was designed to extend the terms of the intangible tax measure to a strong and growing class of taxpayers who had theretofore escaped this particular type of tax. This class was made up of (incorporated) “pipe line companies”, “common carrier oil pipe line companies of every character whatsoever” and “all taxpayers similarly situated”, and in so extending it, it was designed to “bring about a better classification and a wider distribution of the burdens of taxation, as far as this class of taxpayers is concerned.”

Naturally a common carrier oil pipe line company would carry on the business of transporting oil by pipe lines as its business and presumptively for hire. It would be a revenue producing concern within itself, and as such would readily fall within the class of taxpayers presumably subject to the intangible tax or sought to be subjected to that tax.

Upon the same principle and for the same reasons, an incorporated oil pipe line company would be carrying on the business of transporting oil by pipe line. The business would have as its object a profit or income for the owner, and that would be true whether it was a private or public carrier. The very purpose of its existence and nature of its business at once suggest it was similar in situation (as a subject for taxation) to that of the common carrier pipe line company, and, therefore, a proper subject for the application of the intangible tax measure which the Legislature was seeking to extend to taxpayers “similarly situated.” It would, therefore, seem logical not only to bring such companies within the spread of this tax measure, but also to extend the same and distribute its burden to «* * * every other individual, company, corporation or association doing business of the same character in this State.” Art. 7105.

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Related

Thedford v. County of Jackson
502 S.W.2d 899 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1973)
Col-Tex Refining Co. v. Railroad Commission of Texas
240 S.W.2d 747 (Texas Supreme Court, 1951)
Railroad Commission v. Col-Tex Refining Co.
236 S.W.2d 221 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1950)
Texas Co. v. Commonwealth
198 S.W.2d 316 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
144 S.W.2d 909, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/col-tex-refining-co-v-hart-texapp-1940.