United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Board of Assessors
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Board of Assessors
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff is a Maryland corporation, domiciled in Baltimore, Md. It carries on business in this state through a local agent. Its business consists in furnishing fidelity, judicial, official, and other kinds of bonds. For the year 1906 it was assessed as follows:
Money loaned at interest, all credits,
etc. $10,000
Money in possession, etc. 1,000
It asks that said assessment. be canceled, for the reason, as to the first item, that whatever credits may arise in the course of its business in this state are not situated here, and therefore are not taxable here, and, as to the second item, that it has no money in possession, etc., in this state. In the alternative, it asks that the amount of the assessment be reduced.
Against the demand for reduction the defendant has pleaded the estoppel created by section 25 of the revenue law (Act No. 170, p. 360, of 1898) against the taxpayer who' “from any cause whatever” has failed or refused to make a return of his property to' the assessor.
The crucial facts, in connection with the item of credits, are the same as in the case of National Fire Insurance Co. v. Board of Assessors (recently decided) 46 South. 117,i where such credits were held to be taxable", that is to say, plaintiff does business in this state, and the credits arise in the course of, and are part and parcel of, that business. Plaintiff extends no credit to its customers. The business with them is supposed to be cash; but the agent is allowed 30 days in which to remit, and thus the plaintiff is constantly his creditor for the premiums collected, or supposedly collected, in the past month. The agent, in turn, extends a 30-day, and sometimes a much longer, credit to the customer.
As to the second item, the evidence shows that plaintiff has no money in possession in this state and that the return which it made in that regard was true.
On the question of reduction, plaintiff, in the return of its property which it was required by law to make to the assessor, stated that it had no credits in this state. In the decision this day handed down in the case of Travelers’ Ins. Go. v. Board of Assessors, 47 South. 439,2 such a return is
1121 La. 107. 2 Ante, p. 129.
The learned judge a quo reluctantly enforced the estoppel, which up to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Central of Georgia Ry. v. Wright, 207 U. S. 127, 28 Sup. Ct. 47, 52 L. Ed. 134, rendered after his decision in this case, had been supposed to be unbending, and his decision will have to be amended in that respect, and for convenience in framing our own decree we will set it aside.
The judgment appealed from is set aside, and the assessment of the plaintiff is reduced to $1.014.53. Defendant to pay all costs.
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent in so far as plaintiff is held liable for taxation on money loaned, etc., and otherwise concur,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES FIDELITY & GUARANTY CO. v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Taxation (§ 462*) — Duty to Make Return — Failure in Good Faith. A taxpayer is not subject to the doom of the assessor, when the failure to make a return has been in good faith and on reasonable grounds. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Taxation, Dec. Dig. § 462.*] 2. Taxation (§ 500*) — Cancellation oe Assessment. Where the taxpayer has been assessed for money in possession, when as a matter of fact he had no such money, and so stated in his return, the assessment will be canceled. [Ed. Note. — For other cases, see Taxation, Dec. Dig. § 500.*] Breaux, C. J., dissenting, and Monroe, J., dissenting in part. (Syllabus by the Court.)