In Re the Appeal of Yerian

35 Haw. 855, 1941 Haw. LEXIS 5
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedApril 23, 1941
DocketNo. 2472.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 35 Haw. 855 (In Re the Appeal of Yerian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re the Appeal of Yerian, 35 Haw. 855, 1941 Haw. LEXIS 5 (haw 1941).

Opinion

*857 This is an appeal from a decision of the tax appeal court taken pursuant to the provisions of R. L. H. 1935, § 1950, as amended by Haw. Laws 1939, Act 208, Ser. A-33, § 12. It involves the constitutionality of an assessment levied by the tax commissioner, pursuant to the provisions of the “Hawaii Unemployment Relief and Welfare Act,” 1 hereinafter referred to as the “Hawaii Welfare Act,” upon the compensation received by Leo L. Yerian, Esquire, for the month of December, 1939, for services performed by him entirely within the Territory as the district manager of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, an instrumentality of the United States, created and existing pursuant to the Act of Congress of June 13, 1933 (48 Stat. L., pt. 1, c. 64, p. 128, as amended, 12 USCA §§ 1463 et seq.). The taxpayer took a direct appeal from the assessment of the commissioner to the tax appeal court. The tax appeal court in a well-considered opinion sustained the assessment. From the decision of the tax appeal court came the present appeal to this court.

Appellant assigns as error in this court the following grounds: “1. That the Hawaii Unemployment Relief and Welfare Act is in contravention of the provisions of the Social Security Act of the United States and particularly of Subdivision 5, Section 1607 of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States. 2. That under the said Unemployment Relief and Welfare Act, the appellant is deprived of property without due process of law in violation of the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution of the United States. 3. That the said tax law is dis *858 criminatory in that it subjects appellant, as a federal employee, to tbe penalty of fine and imprisonment, to which employees of private persons are not subjected. 4. That the said tax law is discriminatory in that it exempts federal employees of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, but does not exempt employees of other federal departments. 5. That the said tax law attempts to subject appellant to the burden of the tax but denies him its benefits. 6. That the government of the United States has not permitted the imposition of such a tax. 7. That the said Act is in conflict with the constitution and laws of the United States.”

We assume that the particular section of the Internal Revenue Code, which appellant claims under ground one of his specifications of error that the Hawaii Welfare Act contravenes, is subdivision (6) of subsection (c) of section 1607, 2 as amended, wherein is excepted from the *859 definition of the term “employment” in respect to the tax imposed on employers of eight or more under section 1600 of the Code “service performed in the employ of the United States Government or of an instrumentality of the United States which is (A) wholly owned by the United States, or (B) exempt from the tax imposed by section 1600 by virtue of any other provision of law.”

The parties stipulated before the tax appeal court that the following facts were deemed to be established: “1. That appellant, Leo L. Yerian, is the District Manager of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the Territory of Hawaii; 2. That appellant entered the employ of said corporation in the state of California, wherein he is domiciled and that he is not domiciled in this Territory; 3. That appellant arrived in the Territory of Hawaii during the month of November 1939 by reason of a transfer issued to him by the said Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, which directed him to serve as said District Manager in the Territory of Hawaii; 4. That appellant has served as such District Manager in the Territory of Hawaii continuously since his arrival in the Territory in November 1939, and is still serving as such; 5. That appellant’s residence in the Territory of Hawaii is for an indefinite period during which time his employment is and will be entirely within the Territory of Hawaii, and will continue at least until and unless he should be transferred to another station; 6. That appellant is subject to transfer to whatever station the said Home Owners’ Loan Corporation may direct, if he wishes to remain in the employ of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation; 7. That the compensation involved in this appeal was received for services *860 as such employee of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, performed entirely within the Territory; 8. That as such District Manager, appellant is in receipt of monthly compensation from said corporation in the sum of $300.00; 9. That such salary is paid to him by check directly from the head office of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, which is in Washington, D. C.; 10. That upon the 8th day of January, 1940, appellant filed a return under the Hawaii Unemployment Relief and Welfare Act, as amended, for the month of December 1939, showing receipt during said month of $300.00 as compensation from the said corporation for services rendered as such District Manager; that upon the said return a tax was assessed by the Territory of Hawaii under the Unemployment Relief and Welfare Act, as amended, in the sum of $1.80; that he paid the said tax as assessed, under protest, and appealed from the said assessment to this Court; 11. That the Tax Commissioner has adopted, after due public hearing, and the Governor has approved, rules relating to the return and payment of the tax imposed by the Unemployment Relief and Welfare Act, as amended, a copy of said rules being hereto annexed and made a part hereof the same as if set forth herein at length; that said rules were duly published. * * * That this stipulation is entered into without prejudice to the right of each party to raise objections on account of incompetency, irrelevancy, immateriality, or any other ground whatsoever, and without prejudice to the right of each party to introduce evidence in his or its behalf.” The attorney general objected before the tax appeal court to the competency, relevancy and materiality of the statements contained in paragraphs 2, 3 and 6 of the agreed statement of facts.

The Hawaii Welfare Act, at the time of the assessment involved in this case, imposed, in addition to a tax on dividends, a monthly tax of six-tenths of one per cent *861 upon the amount of all compensation not otherwise exempted received by any person during all or any part of such month. Section 3 of the Act, as amended, is quoted in the margin. 3

All employers making payments to employees of compensation were required by section 4 of the Act to deduct and withhold therefrom the amount of the tax and pay the amount so withheld for each month within twenty days after the close of such month to the collector of the taxation division in which the employer had his principal place of business or to the commissioner at Honolulu if the employer had no place of business in the Territory.

The Act carries its own definition of the term “com *862 pensation,” as used in the Act, as amended. 4 The term “employer,” as defined in section 1 (a) of the Act, as amended, was further amended by Haw. Laws 1939, Act 241, Ser.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bishop Trust Company v. Burns
381 P.2d 687 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1963)
Re Taxes, Haw'n Pineapple Co., Ltd.
363 P.2d 990 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1961)
In Re Taxes of Johnson
356 P.2d 1028 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1960)
In Re the Appeal of Century Metalcraft Corp.
41 Haw. 508 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1957)
Tax Appeals Nos. 529 to 591
41 Haw. 141 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1955)
McCaw Keating v. Tax Com'r Fase
40 Haw. 121 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1953)
Borthwick, Tax Com'r v. Veatch
38 Haw. 188 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1948)
Brodhead v. Borthwick
37 Haw. 314 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1946)
In Re Perry Tax Appeal
36 Haw. 340 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1943)
Yerian v. Territory of Hawaii
130 F.2d 786 (Ninth Circuit, 1942)
In Re Tax Appeal of the Von Hamm-Young Co.
36 Haw. 11 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
35 Haw. 855, 1941 Haw. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-appeal-of-yerian-haw-1941.