Texas Pipe Line Co. v. Anderson

100 S.W.2d 754
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 6, 1937
DocketNo. 8471
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 100 S.W.2d 754 (Texas Pipe Line Co. v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Pipe Line Co. v. Anderson, 100 S.W.2d 754 (Tex. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

BLAIR, Justice.

The appellant, Texas Pipe Line Company, instituted this proceeding against R. B. Anderson, state tax commissioner; George .H. Sheppard, state comptroller; and R. B. Stanford, secretary of state, individually ■and as members of the state tax board, to restrain them from. certifying for taxa-^ tion purposes the board’s valuation of the intangible assets of appellant to the counties in which its physical pipe line properties are situated, alleging that the Intangible ■Tax Act (articles 7098 to 7104 and 7106 to [756]*7567116, R.S.1925, and article 7105, as amended by the Act of 1933, c. 162, § 12 [Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 7105]), under which the board acted, violated the equal and uniform taxation clause of the State Constitution (art. 8, § 1) and the equal protection and due process clauses of the Federal Constitution in the particulars urged (Const. U.S. Amend. 14). A general demurrer was sustained to the pleadings of appellant and upon its refusal to amend the proceeding was dismissed; hence this appeal.

Appellant is a Texas corporation engaged as a common carrier oil pipe company. It owns and operates 5,234 miles of oil pipe lines in the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana. A trunk line runs from Lynch, N. M., to Port Arthur, Tex., and other trunk lines run from north and central Texas to Port Arthur and other Gulf Coast points. Appellant’s pipe lines run into and through 88 Texas counties and its pipe liens of all sizes in Texas aggregate 4,520. miles, which converted by calculation is equivalent to 3,859.33 miles of 8" 'pipe lines of all sizes in Texas aggregate tangible Tax Act by amendment thereto in 1933. (Acts 43d Leg. 1933, c. 162, p. 409 [Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 7105]).

Appellant alleged and by its first proposition contends that the Intangible Tax Act infringes said constitutional provisions because it does not provide any lawful method of equalizing the value of its intangible assets taxed by the act with the properties, intangible as well as tangible, of other taxpayers similarly situated. In making this contention, appellant construes the taxing act as not conferring the power of/equalization on the state tax board and as expressly denying that power to the various county equalization boards, with the result that the similar properties of taxpayers subject to the jurisdiction of the county boards are equalized, while that right is denied as to the intangible properties of the oil pipe line companies included in the taxing law.

The Intangible Tax Act has been assailed in many cases on the same constitutional grounds that are urged in the instant case, and the courts are unanimous in holding that the law is sound and valid and in no way or manner vidlative of the fundamental law of either state or nation. Lively v. Missouri, K. & T. R. Co., 102 Tex. 545, 120 S.W. 852, 858; Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Shannon, 100 Tex. 379, 100 S.W. 138, 10 L.R.A.(N.S.) 681; State v. Texas & P. Ry. Co. (Tex.Com.App.) 62 S.W.(2d) 81; Baker v. Druesedow, 263 U.S. 137, 44 S.Ct. 40, 42, 68 L.Ed. 212, 214, affirming Druesedow v. Baker (Tex.Com.App.) 229 S.W. 493; Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Hassell, 57 Tex.Civ.App. 522, 123 S.W. 190 (error refused); State v. Houston & T. C. R. Co. (Tex.Civ.App.) 209 S.W. 820. Appellant contends, however, that neither of these cases determines .the constitutional questions presented here. That is, whether the act confers the power of equalization on the state tax board at all; and, if so, whether the act provides for any lawful method of equalizing the value of the intangible assets taxed by the law with the properties, intangible as well as tangible, of other taxpayers similarly situated. We regard both the Lively Case and the Druese-dow Case as having necessarily determined these questions. A brief review of the history of the act and the court decisions construing it sustains this conclusion.

The first intangible tax law was enacted in 1905 (Acts 1905, c. 146, p. 351), and provided “for taxing intangible assets” of the corporations included therein; and further provided that the valuation of such intangible assets as certified by the state tax board be assessed and equalized for taxation purposes by the county taxing authorities. The state tax board and the courts construed the act of 1905 as authorizing the county taxing officers alone to equalize the certified value of such intangible assets with other properties assessed by them in the county. Missouri, K. & T. R. Co. v. Shannon, supra ; Annual Report, 1906, W. R. Davies, Tax Com., p. 9.

The act of 1905 was amended by the act of 1907 (Acts 1907, 1st called, p. 469), which expressly withdrew from the county taxing authorities the power to assess or equalize the value of the intangible assets taxed by the law with other taxed properties. The act of 1907 provided the method of valuation, rendition, and assessment of the intangible assets taxed by the law, and conferred authority on the state tax board to value, assess, apportion, and certify its assessed valuation to the' county authorities for listing and placing upon the tax rolls and for the collection of the taxes thereon; and further provided that this valuation by the state board was not subject to review or change by the county taxing officers. In such situation the power to value, assess, and apportion such intangible assets [757]*757for taxation purposes by the state tax board necessarily conferred authority on the board to equalize the assessed value of the intangible assets as a part of the tangible properties to which they belong, so that the aggregate assessed value of the intangibles and the physical units shall be upon substantially equal basis with the assessed value of all other taxed properties.

As affects this appeal, the act of 1933 (c. 162, § 12) merely amended article 7105 (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 7105), which named the various corporations included in the taxing law by adding or including therein common carrier oil pipe line companies, such companies not having been included in the act of 1907. No other change material here was made in any provision of the act of 1907, and the court decisions •construing said act necessarily apply to oil pipe line companies brought under the taxing law by the 1933 amendment.

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100 S.W.2d 754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-pipe-line-co-v-anderson-texapp-1937.