Shaffer v. Carter

252 U.S. 37, 40 S. Ct. 221, 64 L. Ed. 445, 1920 U.S. LEXIS 1660, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4727
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedMarch 1, 1920
Docket531, 580
StatusPublished
Cited by387 cases

This text of 252 U.S. 37 (Shaffer v. Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaffer v. Carter, 252 U.S. 37, 40 S. Ct. 221, 64 L. Ed. 445, 1920 U.S. LEXIS 1660, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4727 (1920).

Opinion

Me. Justice Pitney

delivered the opinion of the court.

These are two appeals, taken under circumstances that will be explained, from a single decree in a suit in equity brought by appellant to restrain the enforcement of a tax assessed against him for the year 1916 under the Income Tax Law of the State of Oklahoma, on the ground of the uncohstitutionality of the statute.

A previous suit having the same object was brought by him in the same court against the officials then in office, in which an application for an interlocutory injunction heard before three judges pursuant to § 266, Judicial Code, was denied, one judge dissenting. Shaffer v. Howard, 250 Fed. Rep. 873. An appeal was taken to this court, but, pending its determination, the terms of office of the defendants expired, and, there being no law of the *44 State authorizing a revival or continuance of the action against their successors, we reversed the decree and remanded the cause with directions to dismiss .the bill for want of proper parties. 249 U. S. 200.

After such dismissal, the present defendant Carter, as State Auditor, issued another tax warrant and delivered if to defendant Bruce, Sheriff of Creek County, with instructions to levy upon and sell plaintiff’s property in that county ill order to collect the tax in question; and the sheriff having threatened to proceed, this suit was commenced. An application for an interlocutory injunction, heard before three judges, was denied upon the authority of the decision in 250 Fed. Rep. and of certain recent decisions of this court. The decree as entered not only disposed of the application but dismissed the action. Plaintiff, apparently unaware of this, appealed to this court under § 266, Judicial Code, from the refusal of the temporary injunction. Shortly afterwards he took an appeal under § 238, Judicial Code, from the same decree as a final decree dismissing the action. The latter appeal is in accord with correct practice, since the denial of the interlocutory application was merged in the final decree. The first appeal (No. 531) will be dismissed.

The constitution of Oklahoma, besides providing for the annual taxation of all property in the State upon an ad valorem basis, authorizes (Art. 10, § 12) the employment of a variety of other means for raising revenue, among them income taxes.

The act in question is c. 164 of the Laws of 1915. Its first section reads as follows: “Each and every person in this State, shall be hable to. an annual tax upon the entire net income of such person arising or accruing from all sources during the preceding calendar year, and a like tax shall be levied, assessed, collected and paid annually upon the entire net income from all property owned, and of everv business, trade or profession carried on in this *45 State by persons residing elsewhere.” Subsequent sections define what the term “income” shall include; prescribe how net income shall be computed; provide for certain deductions; prescribe varying rates of tax for all taxable incomes in excess of $3,000, this amount being deducted (by way of exemption) from the income of each individual, and for one living with spouse an additional $1,000, with further deductions where there are children or dependents, exemptions being the same for residents and non-residents; require (§ 2) a return on or before March first from each person liable for an income tax under the provisions of the act for the preceding calendar year; provide (§ 9) that the State Auditor shall revise returns and hear and determine complaints, with power to correct and adjust the assessment of income; that (§ 10) taxes shall become delinquent if not paid on or before the first day of July, and the State Auditor shall have power to issue to any sheriff of the State a warrant commanding him to levy the amount upon the personal property of the delinquent party; and (by § 11) “If any of the taxes herein levied become delinquent, they shall become a lien on all the property, personal and real, of such delinquent person, and shall be subject to the same penalties and provisions as are all ad valorem taxes.”

Plaintiff, a non-resident of Oklahoma, being a citizen of Illinois and a resident of Chicago in that State, was at the time of the commencement of the suit and for several years theretofore (including the years 1915 and 1916) engaged in the oil business in Oklahoma, having purchased, owned, developed, and operated a number of oil and gas mining leases, and being the owner in fee of certain oil-producing land, in that State. From properties thus owned and operated during the year 1916 he received a net income exceeding $1,500,000, and of this he made, under protest, a return which showed that, *46 at the rates fixed by the act, there was due to the State an income tax in excess of $76,000. The then State Auditor overruled the protest and assessed a tax in accordance with the return; the present Auditor has put it in due course of collection; and plaintiff resists its enforcement upon the ground that the act, in so far as it subjects the incomes of non-residents to the payment of such a tax, takes their property without due process of law and denies to them the equal protection of the laws, in contravention of § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment; burdens interstate commerce, in contravention of the commerce clause of § 8 of Art. I of the Constitution; and discriminates against non-residents in favor of residents, and thus deprives plaintiff and other non-residents of the privileges and immunities of citizens and residents of the State of Oklahoma, in violation of § 2 of Art. IV. He also insists that the lien attempted to be imposed upon his property pursuant to § 11 for taxes assessed upon income not arising out of the same property would deprive him of property without due process of law.

As ground for resorting to equity, the bill alleges that plaintiff is the owner of various oil and gas mining leases covering lands in Creek County, Oklahoma, and that the lien asserted thereon by virtue of the levy and tax warrant creates a cloud upon his title. This entitles him to bring suit in equity (Union Pacific Ry. Co. v. Cheyenne, 113 U. S. 516, 525; Pacific Express Co. v. Seibert, 142 U. S. 339, 348; Ogden City v. Armstrong, 168 U. S. 224, 237; Ohio Tax Cases, 232 U. S. 576, 587; Greene v. Louisville & Interurban R. R. Co., 244 U. S. 499, 506), unless the contention that he has a plain, adequate, and complete remedy at law be well founded.

• This contention is based, first, upon the provision of § 9 of c. 164, giving to the State Auditor the same power to correct and adjust an assessment of income that is given to .the county board of equalization in cases of ad *47 valorem

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Bluebook (online)
252 U.S. 37, 40 S. Ct. 221, 64 L. Ed. 445, 1920 U.S. LEXIS 1660, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaffer-v-carter-scotus-1920.