The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-09-27
Supreme Court. Hawaiian Islands.


BEFORE JUDD, C. j.. M'cULLY, BIcKER
TON, j., DOLE, J.
SUBMISSION OF CASE BETWEEN THE
OAHU RAILWAY AND LAND Con-
PANY AND CHARLES A. Brown,
AssEssoR-IN-C CHIEF FOR THE ISL
AND OF OAHU.
The plaintiff company is considered TO be
a.private and not public" corpora
ton
The provision of the tax statute which
makes public stocks and bonds" tax
able as species of personal property.
does not, therefore, apply to the bonds
OF the plaintiff company. and they are
excluded from the description of tax
able property.
OPINION OF THE COURT BY M'CULLY, J.
The following is the submission:
Submission of controversy with
out action,
The Oahu Railway and Land Com
pany, duly Incorporated under the
laws of the Hawaiian Islands, is the
owner of a railway connecting Homo
lulu with Eva on the Island of
Oahu. The said railway is in good
order, thoroughly equipped and is in
active operation. Besides the rail
way and it's equipment, the said
company owns certain other proper
ty consisting of lands and chattels.
In order to build and equip it's
said railway, the company as by its
charter allowed, issued certain mort
gage bonds of the total amount of
$500, 900; of these bonds $260,000
were issued on construction and
equipment account. and said amount
was actually used in such construc-
ton and equipment. The remaining
$4,000 was used in the purchase
and development of its other said
property. Upon the issue of said
bonds the said company guaranteed
them free of taxes; without such
guarantee it might not have been
possible to have sold the bonds and
to have built the road. A form of
said bond is hereto attached and
made part hereof.
By the contract authorized by the
law of 1883 Chapter 62), under
which the said company was organ
lied and has its existence, the
property" "of said COM
pany which shall be fairly necessary
to the reasonable construction, main
tenance and operation of said road is
exempted from all taxes for twenty
years (see Section ~, $4,000 Of
said bonds cover such portion of its
property. The remaining portion of
the property of said company is liza
BILE for and is actually taxed. 1t is
for the said remaining portion that
$4,000 of said bonds were issued.
Upon the foregoing facts it is
claimed by said company that it's
bonds are not liable to taxation, be-
cause,
1st. The $4,000 of the sum
above mentioned cover property ex-
pressly exempt from taxation by law
at the present time, and,
I'd. That the $4,000 Of the sum
aforesaid, cover property already
taxed, and it would be taxation to
tax both the mortgage bond and
property covered thereby.
It is claimed by said tax assessor
that said bonds are personal prop
erty subject to taration by our laws.
It is agreed by and between the
parties hereto that the case above
set forth shall be submitted to the
Supreme Court for its decision and
that such decision shall be final and
binding between the parties hereto
and decisive as to the right to tax
said railway bonds, and that if neces-
sary a writ of prohibition may issue
on such equipment, if favorable to
the plaintiff, or il in favor Of the de-
PENDANT that the total issue of such
bonds shall be assessed to plaintiff,
or such proportion thereof as the
Court shall hold liable to taxation.
Bx THE COURT.
The bonds here under considera-
ton can be taxed only if they are
'public" bonds. The statute defin-
ing personal property" for the pur-
pose of taxation is Section 3 of
Chapter 81 of the Acts of 1886.
Public stocks and bonds" are the
only bonds included. This statute
is an amendment of the Act of 1882,
and the statute is an amend
ment of the law providing for taxa
ton as first enacted in the Civil Code
of 1859 Section 4S3 provided that per
sonal property be construed to in
clude "all moneys in hand
and moneys loaned, all mortgages,
public stocks, stocks in corporations
and every species of property not in
cluded in real estate" The amend
ment of 1882 and the amendment of
1856 make public stocks and bonds
taxable, and omit and SO exclude
from taxation the other enumerated
descriptions of personal property,
and omit the general clause of
'every species OF property, etc" This
Interpretation was made in McBryde
VS.. Kala, decided by Chief Justice
Judd, 9th Haw. 500.
Are the bonds Of the Oahu Rail
way and Land Company public
bonds?
We take the word public" to
mean, of, or relating to, the Govern.
ment There is another use of the
word. the DOpular use nv which is