W. C. Peacock & Co. v. Pratt

121 F. 772, 58 C.C.A. 48, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4097, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4678
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 9, 1903
DocketNo. 897
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 121 F. 772 (W. C. Peacock & Co. v. Pratt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
W. C. Peacock & Co. v. Pratt, 121 F. 772, 58 C.C.A. 48, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4097, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4678 (9th Cir. 1903).

Opinion

GILBERT, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellants, by their bill, seek to enjoin the enforcement of the income tax law of Hawaii, on the ground that it violates both the organic act of the territory and the Constitution of the United States, in that it contains illegal discriminations, fails to exempt the salaries of judges, and compels taxpayers to furnish evidence against themselves which may result in their criminal prosecution. The only restriction of the powers of the territorial Legislature contained in the organic act is the provision that the “legislative power of the territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States locally applicable.” There is no express limitation of power in the matter of taxation. The section so quoted is identical with that which has usually been inserted in the organic acts creating territorial governments. It provides, in effect, that the territorial Legislature may not invade the domain of Congress as to subjects of legislation; but, aside from that, it con-cedes to it all the powers of a legislature of the states. Clinton v. [776]*776Englebrecht, 13 Wall. 434, 20 L. Ed. 659; Maynard v. Hill, 125 U. S. 190, 8 Sup. Ct. 723, 31 L. Ed. 654; Cope v. Cope, 137 U. S. 682, 11 Sup. Ct. 222, 34 L. Ed. 832. In Clinton v. Englebrecht it was said:

“The theory upon which the various governments for portions of the territory of the United States have been organized has ever been that of leaving to the inhabitants all the powers of self-government consistent with the supremacy and supervision of national authority, and with certain fundamental principles established by Congress.”

The provision that the legislative power shall extend to “all rightful subjects of legislation” includes, therefore, full and comprehensive power to legislate in the matter of taxation. Section 8, art. 1, of the Constitution, requiring “that all duties, imposts, and excises shall be ■uniform throughout the United States,” can have no application to the powers of taxation of a state or territorial legislature. It is a rule only for taxation by the United States. The decisions of the Supreme Court construing and applying that provision of the Constitution and the most of the discussion thereof found in the opinions filed in Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co., 157 U. S. 429, 15 Sup. Ct. 673, 39 L. Ed. 759, and on rehearing, 158 U. S. 607, 15 Sup. Ct. 912, 39 L. Ed. 1108, so freely quoted from and earnestly relied upon by the appellants, can have no bearing, therefore, upon the present discussion.

It is urged that section 2 of the law makes illegal discriminations in favor of private schools, colleges, commercial colleges, fraternal benefit societies, and fire, life, and marine insurance companies. The corporations so exempted from the income tax are all of the character of corporations usually recognized as proper subjects of exemption from taxation, with the single exception of insurance companies; and, as to those, the act states the reason of their exemption. It is because a tax is imposed on a percentage of their premiums under the authority of another act. In Davidson v. New Orleans, 96 U. S. 97, 24 L. Ed. 616, it was said that the federal Constitution imposes on .the- states no restraint against unequal taxation. But that remark must be construed in the light of subsequent utterances of the court, in which due effect was given to that portion of the fourteenth amendment which forbids a state to deny to citizens within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The rule is that unequal taxes may not be imposed upon property of the same kind, in the same situation, and used for the same purpose. But the protection afforded by the fourteenth amendment has never been carried to the extent of requiring that the same tax shall be .imposed in the same manner upon every class of property, irrespective of its nature or condition or class. In Kentucky Railroad Tax Cases, 115 U. S. 337, 6 Sup. Ct. 57, 29 L. Ed. 414, the court, after referring to the fact that there was nothing in the Constitution of Kentucky requiring taxes to be levied in a uniform method upon all descriptions of property, remarked:

“The whole matter is left to the discretion of the legislative power, and there is nothing to forbid the classification of property for purposes of taxa • tion and the valuation of different classes by different methods. The rule of equality in respect to the subject only requires the same means and methods to be applied impartially to all the constituents of each class so that the law shall operate equally and uniformly upon all persons in similar circumstances.”

[777]*777In Bells Gap Railroad Company v. Pennsylvania, 134 U. S. 232, 237, 10 Sup. Ct. 533, 33 L. Ed. 892, Mr. Justice Bradley said that the fourteenth amendment was not intended to require a state to adopt an iron rule of taxation. So in State Railroad Tax Cases, 92 U. S. 575, 612, 23 L. Ed. 663, Mr. Justice Miller said:

“Perfect equality and perfect uniformity of taxation, as regards individuals or corporations, or the different classes of property subject to taxation, is a dream unrealized.”

In Home Ins. Co. v. New York, 134 U. S. 594, 606, 10 Sup. Ct. 593, 33 L. Ed. 1025, Mr. Justice Field said:

“But the amendment does not prevent the classification of property for taxation — subjecting one kind of property to one rate of taxation, and another kind of property to a different rate. * * * Nor does the amendment prohibit special legislation.”

In Pacific Express Co. v. Seibert, 142 U. S. 339, 351, 12 Sup. Ct. 250, 35 L. Ed. 1035, the court not only approved the doctrine of the cases above cited, but said that a system which imposes the same taxation upon every species of property, irrespective of its nature or condition or class, “will be destructive of the principle of uniformity and equality of taxation, and of a just adaptation of property to its burdens.” In Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Indiana, 165 U. S. 304, 17 Sup. Ct. 345, 41 L. Ed. 725, it was held that, in enforcing the collection of taxes, one rule may be adopted in respect to the admitted use of one kind of property, and another rule in respect to the admitted use of another, in order that all may be compelled to bear their proper share of the burdens of government. In W. W. Cargill Co. v. Minnesota, 180 U. S. 452, 21 Sup. Ct. 423, 45 L. Ed.

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121 F. 772, 58 C.C.A. 48, 4 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 4097, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/w-c-peacock-co-v-pratt-ca9-1903.