Puffer Mfg. Co. v. Robertson
Opinion of the Court
The purpose of the hill is to enjoin the state revenue agent from giving notice to the assessors and tax col
The Puffer Manufacturing Company, incorporated under the laws of the state of Maine, with its principal place of business at Winchester, Mass., is engaged in the manufacture and sale of soda water fountains and apparatus. In the course of its business it sold to different customers in about 80. counties in the state of Mississippi divers 'and sundry soda water fountains and soda water apparatus under written contracts of conditional sale, providing for the vendor’s retention of title until the purchase price is paid, and that the purchaser will pay all taxes levied or assessed against the property described in the contract. The bill alleged that the yarious purchasers had returned for taxation the property sold to the particular purchaser, and the taxes due thereon had been assessed in each instance against the purchaser, and had been paid by the purchasers. The terms of the contract of conditional sale with the different purchasers were contained in a printed form and were essentially the same. The bill further charged that in 1915 the state revenue agent gave notice to various assessors in a few counties of the state'that soda waterfountains and apparatus sold by complainant to its various customers .in these counties had escaped taxation by reason of not having been assessed in previous years, and was proceeding to assess this property, when complainant and the attorney of the state revenue agent entered ,into an- agreement that, if complainant would furnish the revenue agent with a correct list of all the personal property held under conditional sale in ‘the state, the revenue agent would assist in the ascertainment of this information, and would delay action until an honest effort had been made to ascertain from these purchasers whether the taxes had been paid. The bill charges, and tire answer denies, a breach of this agreement.
We do not think this is a case for the application of the rule'that a court of equity will take cognizance of a controversy to prevent a multiplicity of suits. ■ That doctrine is only applicable when the apprehended suits present a common point of controversy. The complainant sold a separate soda water apparatus to about 80 different purchasers. The sales were separate and distinct. No single sale was connected with or related to another sale; each being an independent transaction. The question in each case is whether a particular purchaser complied with his own contract as to the assessment and payment of the taxes on his purchase. There is no common point in the controversy in the ascertainment of the fact of each purchaser’s complying with his individual covenant. It may be convenient to the holder of 100 promissory notes, given by as many different prom-isors residing in as many different counties, for different amounts and for different considerations, to join them in one action; but such convenience will not outweigh the inconvenience of the defendants, arising from the joinder of so many unrelated and distinct causes of action in one suit. The controlling and prominent fact in the complainant’s claim for relief is that each of his vendees has paid the tax on the property of complainant in the vendee’s possession. The taxes due to the levee board, or municipality, in one taxing district, on property located in that district, is absolutely unrelated to the taxes due in another taxing district, on property located in that district.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- PUFFER MFG. CO. v. ROBERTSON, State Revenue Agent
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published