Case ID: us-ct-cl_62/html/0768-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Butlee", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES v. PITTSBURGH & WEST VIRGINIA RY. CO. ET AL. PITTSBURGH & WEST VIRGINIA RY. CO. ET AL. v. UNITED STATES
    [61 C. Cls. 11; 271 U. S. 310]
    
    Judgment was rendered against the United States in the court below. On appeal the judgment was reversed, the Supreme Court deciding:
    1. Under section 1 of the Federal control act and section 6 of the standard form of contracts made pursuant thereto between the Director General of Railways and the railroads taken over by the Government, whereby the Director General was either to pay out of the revenues derived from railway operations “ during the period of Federal control,” or save the company harmless from all taxes lawfully assessed under Federal or other governmental authority “for any part of said period,” except “ war taxes ” assessed against the company under the revenue act of 1917 or any act in addition thereto or amendment thereof, the obligation of the Director General to hear the normal income taxes of a railroad corporation was limited to those “ assessed for the period of Federal control,” and did not extend to income taxes under the revenue act of 1921, assessed for the year 1921, on income received by the company in that year (after termination of Federal control) from the Director General in compensation for the use of its properties during Federal control.
    2. The divisions of income taxes prescribed by revenue act of 1918, section 230 (b), between the Director General of Railroads and railroad companies did not apply to income taxes imposed by revenue act of 1921, and the latter prescribed no such divisions.
   Mr. Justice Butlee

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court May 24, 1926.