Dermott Grocery Comm'n v. Hardin, Comm. of Rev.

156 S.W.2d 882, 203 Ark. 446, 1941 Ark. LEXIS 361
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 22, 1941
Docket4-6576
StatusPublished

This text of 156 S.W.2d 882 (Dermott Grocery Comm'n v. Hardin, Comm. of Rev.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dermott Grocery Comm'n v. Hardin, Comm. of Rev., 156 S.W.2d 882, 203 Ark. 446, 1941 Ark. LEXIS 361 (Ark. 1941).

Opinion

Holt, J.

Appellant seeks to enjoin appellee, the Commissioner of Revenues for the state of Arkansas, from collecting a two per cent, sales tax on the gross proceeds derived from the sales by it to retail merchants of paper boxes, paper bags, twine, wrapping paper, and other materials to be used by the merchants for the purpose of delivering merchandise sold by them to their customers. As grounds for the relief sought, the complaint alleged that the commodities mentioned were neither used nor consumed by the retail merchants to whom they were sold, but were resold by the retailer; that the commodities were sold by plaintiff to the retail merchants for resale; and “that the paper boxes, paper bags, twine, wrapping paper, ice cream and food containers and other paper materials used as containers become a component part of the packaged articles and that they merge into and become an element in the cost of the final article sold by the retailer to the housewife, consumer or other final purchaser; . . . . that it does not change the form of the paper boxes, paper bags, twine, wrapping paper, ice cream and food containers and other paper material used as containers which it sells to the retailers for resale. ’ ’

It further alleged that it was not subject to the tax under the provisions of act 386 of 1941, “The Gross Sales Act” now in effect; that the attempt of the Revenue Commissioner to collect the tax will result in double taxation, unlawful discrimination against appellant, and that the imposition and collection of the tax contravenes appellant’s rights under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and § 2, art. 2, of the Constitution of the state of Arkansas.

Appellee’s answer denied all material allegations.

Upon a trial the court found the issues in favor of appellee and dismissed appellant’s complaint for want of equity. The effect of this decree was to hold that the sales in question were not sales for resale. Appellant has appealed.

The sole question presented here is whether the sales of these commodities (the wrapping paper, paper sacks, etc.) mentioned by appellant, to retail merchants were sales for resale and therefore exempted from the tax provided in the gross receipts tax law (act 386 of 1941).

The record establishes the following facts: The commodities named in the complaint, which appellant sold to retail merchants, were used by the retailer in wrapping or packaging merchandise sold to customers. In no instance of sale was a specific or separate charge made by the merchant for the commodity, or commodities, so used in wrapping or packaging the merchandise. The buyer of the merchandise from the retail merchants paid no greater amount for the articles of merchandise by reason of the commodities used by the merchants in wrapping or packaging the merchandise than would have been paid had the merchandise been delivered to the customer without using such commodities as paper sacks, paper boxes, wrapping paper, etc., except in instances where articles were sold by weight, in which event the wrapping paper, paper boxes or bags, as the case may be, on certain occasions, but not all, were weighed along with the article sold and the selling price of the merchandise was determined from the total weight of the article together with the wrapping paper, paper bag, paper box, paper sack, or other container.

Act 233 of 1935, the original sales tax law, was superseded by act 154 of 1937, and this later act as amended by act 364 of 1939, was in effect until July 1, 1941, when the present act 386 of 1941, known as the Gross Receipts Tax Act, became effective. Those provisions of act 233 of 1935 exempting sales for resale from the tax are in effect similar to the provisions in act 386 of 1941, which is now in force.

Subsection (i) of § 3 of act 233 of 1935 provides: “The test of a sale at retail is whether the sale is to a consumer for use and not for resale. Sales of goods which, as ingredients or constituents, go into and form a part of the tangible personal property for resale by the buyer are not within-the act; also sale of tangible personal property where other property is accepted as part of purchase price, such personal property so accepted to be resold, is not subject to the tax.”

Subsection (i) of § 4 of the present' Gross Receipts Tax Law, act 386 of 1941, provides: “Gross receipts or gross proceeds derived from sales for resale to persons regularly engaged in the business of reselling.the articles purchased, whether within or without the state, provided that such sales within the state are made to persons to whom sales tax permits have been issued as provided in § 12 of this act.

“Goods, wares, merchandise, and property sold for use in manufacturing, compounding, processing, assemblying or preparing, for sale, can be classified as having been sold for the purpose of resale or the subject-matter of resale only in the event such goods, wares, merchandise, or property becomes a recognizable, integral part of the manufactured, compounded, processed, assembled or prepared products. Such sales of goods, wares, merchandise, and property not conforming to this requirement are classified for the purpose of this act as being ‘for consumption or use’.”

This court, in the case of Wiseman v. Arkansas Wholesale Grocers’ Ass'n, 192 Ark. 313, 90 S. W. 2d 987, in construing the effect of the provisions of the 1935 act, supra, and the taxability of sales of commodities similar to those involved here, and under a state of facts not materially different from those in the present case, it appearing in that case that the wrapping paper, paper bags and twine were to be used by the merchant “for the purpose of wrapping up, tying and as containers for various and sundry articles of merchandise purchased by the customer of said retail merchant, ’ ’ and no specific charge was 'made by the merchant to this customer for these commodities, held that sales there by wholesalers to retail merchants of such commodities were not sales for resale and were, therefore, subject to the sales tax under that act.

The only additional fact appearing in the present case which did not appear in the Wiseman case is, that where merchandise is sold by weight the wrapping paper, paper bags and other containers, in some instances, but not in all, were weighed along with the articles sold.

It is our view, however, that this fact does not differentiate the case before us from the Wiseman case; that that decision controls here and, therefore, that the commodities mentioned are not exempt from the tax provided in act 386 of 1941 now in force.

It is certain in this case, as in the AAGseman case, that the commodities sold by appellant to the retailers were not sold for the purpose of resale by the retailer in the sense that merchants are engaged in the business of selling at retail the commodities named. But in all cases the retail merchants were engaged in selling merchandise, and as an incident to their business, for sanitary purposes, to entice trade, and as a matter of convenience for the customers, used and consumed in their business the commodities mentioned.

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Related

Wiseman v. Arkansas Wholesale Grocers' Ass'n
90 S.W.2d 987 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1936)
McCarroll, Comm. of Rev. v. Scott Paper Box Co.
115 S.W.2d 839 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
156 S.W.2d 882, 203 Ark. 446, 1941 Ark. LEXIS 361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dermott-grocery-commn-v-hardin-comm-of-rev-ark-1941.