Titzel Engineering, Inc. Mercantile Tax Case

205 A.2d 700, 204 Pa. Super. 457, 1964 Pa. Super. LEXIS 612
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 16, 1964
DocketAppeals, Nos. 24 and 25
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 205 A.2d 700 (Titzel Engineering, Inc. Mercantile Tax Case) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Titzel Engineering, Inc. Mercantile Tax Case, 205 A.2d 700, 204 Pa. Super. 457, 1964 Pa. Super. LEXIS 612 (Pa. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

Opinion by

Woodside, J.,

We have before us two appeals from orders of the County Court of Allegheny County setting aside mercantile taxes which had been imposed upon Titzel Engineering, Inc. by the City of Pittsburgh and the School District of Pittsburgh. The only question is whether the engineering company (Titzel), a Pennsylvania corporation, was engaged in manufacturing the items for the sale of which the taxes were imposed upon it as a dealer.

The school district assessed its tax under the Act of June 20, 1947, P. L. 745, as amended and re-enacted, 24 P.S. §582.1 et seq., which exempts from the tax “any person vending or disposing of articles of his own . . . manufacture.”

The city assessed its tax under an ordinance authorized by the Act of June 25, 1947, P. L. 1145, as amended, 53 P.S. §6851 et seq., referred to as the “Tax [459]*459Anything Act.” This act withholds from the city the authority to tax goods and articles manufactured and to tax any privilege, act or transaction related to the business of manufacturing.

Although the language of the two acts differ, neither the city nor the school district is entitled to the tax if the machines sold by Titzel were manufactured by it. Koolvent Aluminum Awning Co. v. Pittsburgh, 186 Pa. Superior Ct. 233, 236, 142 A. 2d 428 (1958) and cases there cited.

Titzel sells for use in steel mills various types of cranes, descaling systems, drying ovens, and other large, heavy machinery, all tailor-made according to individual specifications. The machines are designed by Titzel, who upon approval of the designs by the customer, orders the materials, fabricates a part of the machine in its own shop, and has the more massive parts of the machines made in the shop of another corporation under the direction and supervision of a Titzel engineer. The machines, only partly assembled, are then sent to the customer’s steel mill where they are erected, assembled, and connected to the customer’s other equipment.

The work at the customer’s mill is sometimes performed by Titzel’s own men, but, due to union requirements and regulations, is more frequently performed by employees at the site or by subcontractors engaged for the purpose by Titzel’s engineers. Workmen engaged at the site are responsible to Titzel and not to its customers.

Titzel’s plant is a three-story building, about 40 feet by 95 feet. The first floor is used for storage; the second floor is used as a shop; and the third floor, is used for engineering and executive offices.

From four to six employes work in the shop. All parts of the machines capable of being made at the Titzel shop are made there, but the more massive parts [460]*460cannot be fabricated or assembled at the Titzel shop and are made at tbe plant of another company. No item of machinery or equipment sold by Titzel is' made entirely apart or away from Titzel’s shop.

We agree with the following extracts from the opinion of the court below written by. President Judge Lencher, who carefully reviewed and ably analyzed the facts and law governing these cases:

“There can be no question but that the plant equipment and machinery made and sold by Titzel Engineering, Inc. are manufactured products. Nothing that Titzel Engineering, Inc. so makes and sells is standard, all items being tailor-made to suit the customer’s individual requirements. The raw material must be cut, fitted, milled, fabricated, assembled, wired, joined and connected into one end product, whether the product be a crane, a descaling system or other piece of plant machinery. All of the elements applicable to a manufactured product are present, including a substantial transformation in form, qualities and adaptability in use; the giving of new shapes to matter; and the making of a new and different useful article or product — all brought about by the application of care, skill and labor to materials.
• “A portion of the work of the manufacturing of each article of plant equipment and machinery sold by Titzel Engineering, Inc. is performed at the shop and plant of Titzel Engineering, Inc. on Forty-second Street; Pittsburgh by the employees of Titzel Engineering, Inc. Since Titzel Engineering, Inc. does not do milling, and since items of such plant equipment and machinery are extremely large and heavy, part of the work on such items must be and is done at an outside plant of sufficient size and capacity to handle such additional work. The work is at all times under the control of a contract engineer of Titzel Engineering, Inc. who coordinates the work done at the Titzel En[461]*461gineering, Inc. plant with whatever work is done at the outside plant. The final part of the work is completed at the customer’s site or plant under the direction of the contract engineer of Titzel Engineering, Inc., local labor or subcontractors being usually employed for that purpose. While the work done at an outside plant is in most cases necessary, that work is only part of the manufacturing process involved. It is the work done at the Titzel Engineering, Inc. plant, plus the work done at an outside plant, plus the final assembly, erection, wiring and connection at the customer’s plant that brings about the end result of the completed and installed piece of machinery or equipment.
“While part of the work of manufacturing the finished product is performed away from the plant of Titzel Engineering, Inc., that fact in no way limits or affects the right of Titzel Engineering, Inc. to exemption from mercantile license taxes on the sales of the plant equipment and machinery so designed, manufactured and sold. It is seldom that all parts of a manufactured article are manufactured by the same person or corporation, and more than one person or corporation may participate or be engaged in the manufacture of one article.” See Philadelphia School District v. Rosenberg, 402 Pa. 365, 368, 369, 167 A. 2d 259 (1961) ; Hazen Engineering Co. v. Pittsburgh, 189 Pa. Superior Ct. 531, 151 A. 2d 855 (1959).

The city and school district admit that the machines are manufactured, but they contend that the manufacturing is not done by Titzel but by the company which makes the massive parts of the machines. Contending that Titzel’s connection with the machines is that of engineering and assembling them, the appellants rely upon two cases: Hazen Engineering Co. v. Pittsburgh, supra, 189 Pa. Superior Ct. 531, 151 A. 2d 855 (1959), and Philadelphia School District v. Parent [462]*462Metal Products, Inc., 402 Pa. 361, 167 A. 2d 257 (1961).

Hazen Engineering Co. was a Pittsburgh company which we held to be liable for the mercantile tax because it was engaged in engineering and not in manufacturing. We said there: “We would be likely to include among those engaged in the manufacturing of an automobile, not only those employes of the corporation who handle the parts and operate the machines on the assembly line and their foremen, but also the designers who originate the style, the draftsmen who prepare the plans, the inspectors who test the component parts and the drivers who test the finished product. All are a part of the process of manufacturing an automobile, and necessary to the creation of the end product which the corporation makes to sell.

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Bluebook (online)
205 A.2d 700, 204 Pa. Super. 457, 1964 Pa. Super. LEXIS 612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/titzel-engineering-inc-mercantile-tax-case-pasuperct-1964.