Pope v. Town & City of Hartford

74 A. 751, 82 Conn. 406, 1909 Conn. LEXIS 67
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedDecember 17, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 74 A. 751 (Pope v. Town & City of Hartford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pope v. Town & City of Hartford, 74 A. 751, 82 Conn. 406, 1909 Conn. LEXIS 67 (Colo. 1909).

Opinion

Thayer, J.

The plaintiffs as receivers of the Pope Manufacturing Company, a New Jersey corporation, on the 21st day of October, 1908, returned the following list of the taxable property belonging to them and situated in the town and city of Hartford on the 1st day of October: — ■

“One mill and factory, .... $300,000
“ Investment in mechanical and manufacturing operations, .... $200,000
“Total,.......$500,000”

The board of assessors added to the list so returned, an item reading: “Cash on hand on deposit, $291,151.” The plaintiffs appealed from this action of the assessors to the board of relief, requesting said board to strike the added item from their list. The board refused to do so, and the plaintiffs appealed from their action to the Superior Court, which rendered judgment striking the item from the list. The defendants appealed from that judgment to this court.

The appointment of the plaintiffs as receivers of said company was made by the Superior Court in Hartford county on November 1st, 1907, the company being then in the hands of the principal receivers appointed by the Court of Chancery of New Jersey. The plaintiffs after their appointment and until the 24th day of December, 1908, conducted the business of the company in this State *408 under orders of the Superior Court, and by virtue of said orders made and sold automobiles in Connecticut. On the 1st day of October, 1908, they had $291,151 in cash belonging to the company in their hands and on deposit in bank to their credit as such ancillary receivers. This sum was derived from the proceeds of sales of goods and material theretofore in their hands as receivers, and from the proceeds of sales of automobiles manufactured by them in the course of their business as receivers under orders of the Superior Court. It was held by the plaintiffs for the purpose of paying claims of the creditors of the company under directions of the Superior Court and said Chancery Court of New Jersey.

On September 21st, 1908, said Court of Chancery had directed the principal receivers to request the plaintiffs as ancillary receivers to apply for authority to transfer the sum of $100,000 from the Connecticut jurisdiction to the New Jersey jurisdiction, for the purposes of paying a dividend to creditors of the company whose claims had been allowed, and such an application had been made by the plaintiffs and was pending in the Superior Court on the 1st day of October. On October 2d, 1908, a hearing was had upon said application and the same was granted, and $100,000 was thereafter transferred to the New Jersey receivers and was used in paying a dividend to creditors of the company. Later, under another order of the Superior Court, the transfer of a further sum of $163,000 was made to the New Jersey receivers, which, with funds in the Chancery Court of New Jersey belonging to the domiciliary receivers, was sufficient to pay the balance due upon all claims allowed by said Court of Chancery and the Superior Court, with interest. The funds so transferred were disbursed by the domiciliary receivers under orders of said Court of Chancery in the payment of those claims.

The foregoing are substantially the facts set up in the *409 complaint. The only error assigned is the action of the court in overruling a demurrer to the complaint, and this presents the question whether, upon the facts, the cash item was properly added to the plaintiffs’ list.

It is provided by statute that “the whole property in this state of every corporation organized under the laws of any other state or country,' shall be set in its list and liable to taxation in the same manner as the property of individuals.” General Statutes, § 2328. The cash and credits of individuals are liable to taxation. The plaintiffs claim that if the cash in question belonged to the Pope Manufacturing Company, it was not taxable because of § 2342 of the General Statutes, which provides that the property of any trading, mercantile, manufacturing, or mechanical business shall be assessed in the town, city, or borough where the business is carried on, and provides, as a rule of assessment, the average amount of goods kept on hand for sale during the year prior to the assessment. But that section has no bearing upon such a case as this. There is here no question of the average amount of goods kept on hand for sale; and the fact that such a rule of assessment is provided for the goods kept on hand for sale does not exempt a foreign corporation from taxation upon its other property, real and personal, within the State.

The case of Shaw v. Hartford, 56 Conn. 351, 353, 15 Atl. 742, is referred to in support of the plaintiffs’ contention. In that case the stock of goods of a nonresident individual trader kept on hand for sale in this State was held to be taxable under the statute, although the goods were also taxable in the State of the trader’s domicil; but we held that other personal property of his found here and assessed against him was improperly included in the assessment. That property not being within the statute was not taxable by force of it, and there was no other statute which made it taxable in this State. Its situs was at the domicil of its owner in another State. Section 2328 makes all' the prop *410 erty of a foreign corporation within the State liable to assessment. The language is too clear to leave any doubt as to its intent. The power of the State to make such an enactment is undoubted. Sprague v. Lisbon, 30 Conn. 18, 19. If the corporation had been solvent and had this cash on hand it would have been bound upon the facts before us to have included it in its list for taxation.

The court in its memorandum overruling the demurrer held that cash in the hands of receivers of a corporation applicable only to the payment of dividends to creditors is not property of the receivers or the corporation for purposes of taxation, but is the property of the creditors; and that cash in the hands of ancillary receivers of a foreign corporation in this State temporarily held for transfer to receivers of the corporation in the State of its domicil, and there applicable to the payment of dividends to creditors, has no situs in this State for purposes of taxation, and is not property in this State within the meaning of the statutes in regard to taxation. And this is the plaintiffs’ chief contention.

We think that the situs of this property, for purposes of taxation, was precisely the same as it would have been had there been no receivers and had the cash remained in the hands of the corporation. The receivership did not transfer the title to the creditors, nor did the cash, which would be property subject to taxation in this State under the statute, cease to be such by reason of the receivership. In the hands of the corporation its legal situs would be in the State of the corporation’s domicil: It is not the legal situs of the property which decides its taxability under the statute, but its actual situs, the fact that it is within the State receiving the protection of its laws.

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Bluebook (online)
74 A. 751, 82 Conn. 406, 1909 Conn. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pope-v-town-city-of-hartford-conn-1909.