Goodrich v. Bowers

167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 2, 1958
DocketNos. 35239, 35240 and 35241
StatusPublished

This text of 167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403 (Goodrich v. Bowers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goodrich v. Bowers, 167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403 (Ohio 1958).

Opinion

Herbert, J.

The appeal in case No. 35240, also referred to as the Maddox case, arises from assessments made for the tax years 1953, 1954 and 1955. The statutes applicable in such case are, in part, as follows:

Section 5709.01, Revised Code (Section 5328, General Code). “ * * * personal property located and used in business in this state, and all domestic animals kept in this state, whether or not used in business, are subject to taxation, regardless of the residence of the owner thereof * * V’

Section 5701.08, Revised Code (Section 5325-1, General Code). “* * * Personal property is ‘used’ within the meaning of ‘used in business’ when employed or utilized in connection with ordinary or special operations * * * or when stored or kept on hand as material, parts, products, or merchandise; but merchandise or agricultural products belonging to a nonresident of this state is not used in business in this state if held in a storage warehouse for storage only.”

The appeals in the Goodrich case (No. 35239) and the Grener case (No. 35241) are from assessments made for personal property taxes due January 1, 1956. For that tax year, Section 5701.08, Revised Code, was amended, effective September 30, 1955. The last clause after the semicolon, as above quoted, was deleted and the following pertinent language was added:

[405]*405“* * * Agricultural products in storage in a grain elevator, a warehouse, or a place of storage which products are subject to the control of the United States government and are to be shipped on order of the United States government, and merchandise or agricultural products shipped from outside of this state and held in this state in a warehouse or a place of storage for storage only and for shipment outside of this state are not used in business in this stated’ (Emphasis added.)

Section 5709.01, Revised Code, also was amended, effective September 20, 1955, but the amendment is not pertinent to the issues here.

Because of the variance in the statutes applicable in the instant cases, the Tax Commissioner phrases the question presented in the Maddox case (No. 35240) as “whether or not on tax listing day for the years 1953, 1954 and 1955, the appellees had a taxable interest in the wheat in question,” and, in the Goodrich and Grener cases, whether “the grain in question was subject to the control of the United States government * * * on tax listing day of 1956” and “whether or not the wheat in question was property excepted from personal property taxation by the provisions of Section 5701.08, Revised Code,” as amended.

The appeal in the Maddox case was prior in time to the Goodrich and Grener eases. Testimony taken before an examiner of the Board of Tax Appeals was summarized in its journal entry of April 10, 1957. Pertinent parts of that entry are as follows:

Í (* * *

“The order complained of has to do with appellants’ wheat crops harvested in 1952, 1953 and 1954. During these years appellants entered into consecutive agreement [sic] with the Commodity Credit Corporation. On January 1, tax listing date of each year, these three respective crops were in storage in a grain elevator in Fayette County. The controversy between the contending parties, as the Board of Tax Appeals sees it, depends upon who owned these stored crops on tax lien day of each respective year.

tt* # #

“The respective agreements between the appellants and [406]*406the Commodity Credit Corporation consist of two documents in each year * * *. These documents consist of what is designated as the ‘producer’s note and loan agreement’ and a negotiable warehouse receipt.

“Appellant producers delivered their wheat to a co-operative elevator, licensed and bonded under the United States Warehouse Act, where it was tested for moisture contents, graded and weighed, and weight slips issued showing the gross net weight of all grain delivered. When the producer returned these slips to the elevator, it issued its warehouse receipt to the producer for the amount of wheat received by it. This receipt states the number of pounds and bushels delivered and received. The receipt is a negotiable instrument, assignable, and evidencing ownership, title and right to possession in the hands of appellants or any subsequent assignee holder thereof. The producers, with the warehouse receipt in hand, then contact the P. M. A. county committee, the agent of Commodity Credit Association, and the producer’s note and loan agreement is prepared and signed by the producer and approved by a P. M. A. committee member. The producers then proceed to the designated bank. Upon delivery of the producer’s note and loan agreement and the warehouse receipt, duly assigned in blank to the bank, the bank pays to the producers the amount designated in the note.

“Thereafter, and before tax lien date for the succeeding year, the bank billed Commodity Credit for the amount advanced by the bank to the producers, and Commodity Credit reimbursed the bank, and took possession of the two instruments under which it was empowered to consign the. wheat in storage to any place it might choose. Commodity Credit paid all storage, insurance and other charges thereon.”

The board incorporated into its entry parts of the “producer’s note and loan agreement,” as follows:

Under Section 4:

“The producer hereby sells, assigns, pledges, mortgages, and/or hypothecates to the payee named in the producer’s note and to any subsequent holder thereof, as collateral security for the payment of the note, the warehouse receipts or other documents representing the commodity described in the schedule of pledged commodity below.”

[407]*407Under 9 (a), (f), and (h):

(a) “Any holder of the producer’s note shall look solely to the pledged commodity for satisfaction of such note, plus charges and interest, unless the producer has made a fraudulent representation in obtaining the loan evidenced by such note. * *

(f) “The producer understands and agrees that the making of loans pursuant to this producer’s note and loan agreement and the pooling of the pledged commodity and the liquidation of such pool pursuant to subsections (c) and (e) hereof constitute integral parts of a federal program designed to protect the interests of producers and consumers by providing for a continuous and stable supply of agricultural commodities from domestic production adequate to meet consumers’ demand at prices fair to both producers and consumers. In pursuance of such program the Commodity Credit Corporation shall have the right to treat a pooled commodity as a reserve supply to be marketed under such sales policies as the corporation determines will promote orderly marketing, protect the interests of producers and consumers, and not unduly impair the market for the current crop of the commodity, even though part or all of such pooled commodity is disposed of under such policies at prices less than the current domestic price for such commodity. ’ ’

(h) “The Commodity Credit Corporation may prescribe such restrictions or limitations upon the right of the producer to assign, sell, or transfer either his right to redeem or his remaining interest in the pledged commodity as it determines are necessary in order to effectuate the purposes of the loan program pursuant to which this loan is made available.”

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Bluebook (online)
167 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodrich-v-bowers-ohio-1958.