The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-01
WANT CITY STOPPED
FROM COLLECTION OF TAXES SAID
TO BE ILLEGAL.
ARMOUR COMPANY SUES
TO PREVENT SALE OF ITS PROP
ERTY UNDER TAX FL. FAS.

City Has Been Requiring Company
to Return Its Accounts Due by LO-
cal Dealers for Taxation and Max
ing an Assessment of It's own
When the Company Failed to Com
ply-Levied Taxes Upon $4,000 OF
Accounts for Years 1900 and 1900.
Company Contends That Accounts
Are Taxable Only in the Place OF
Its Domicile, Kansas City-Hear-
ing ON August 10.
petition for injunction, in which
the Armour Packing Company is the
plaintiff and the Mayor and Aldermen
of the City of Savannah the defendant,
and in which is raised an in
teresting and important question of
law, was filed yesterday in the Supe-
rior Court.
The court is asked to enjoin the city
from the collection of certain tax fifas
which have been issued against it by
the city treasurer and levied by the
city marshal, upon the packing house
at the corner of Harris and West Broad
streets. The defendant has refused to
pay the amount of the tax executions,
as they stand at present, and AYERS in
the petition that unless immediate
equitable relief is granted by the court
it's property will be sold. No restrain
ing order has been asked in the petit
ton and none was granted by the
court, but the city has been directed
to show cause before Judge Falligant
on Aug. 10, why the sale of the prop
erty levied on and all further efforts
to collect the amount of the tax should
not be enjoined.
The petitioner shows that IL is a cor
poration of the state of Missouri, hav
ing it's principal office and place of
business and it's domicile in Kansas
City, with branch offices all over the
United States. Its plan is to sell
meats to local dealers on thirty and
sixty days time and it is these &C
counts of the dealers, due to the COM
pany, which the city has attempted to
tax and which have become the sub
ject matter of the pending litigation.
The petitioner claims that none of the
accounts is taxable in Savannah, as
none of the proceeds of them is in
tended for investment here, but are
forwarded upon collection, through the
the company in Kansas City. The Of
flee here acts as agent only in the col
lection of the accounts and the money
collected is taxed in Kansas City
Objection is made to having it taxed
twice.
The company shows that it returned
its accounts due and uncollected, to
the Board of Tax Assessors and Re
ceivers of the city, at SIS, for the year
1892 and at $500, for the year 1900.
1t is claimed that these returns repre-
scented the real value of the accounts
due the company, which are subject to
taxation in Savannah but that not
withstanding this fact the board re-
fused to accept them and each year ar
bitrarily fixed the value of these ac-
counts at $1,000, and required the COM
pany to pay taxes upon this amount.
The accounts, says the petition, were
chooses in action the right to tax which
is vested solely in the place of domi
cile of the owner.
Tax fffas have been issued against
the company for $1S1 rs, for the year
1899, and for $179 .0S, for the year 1900.
OF these amounts it is claimed that
$14S.5 So of the tax execution for 1899,
and $137 &c, of the execution for 1900,
are illegal charges, made upon the ac-
counts of the company, which are not
properly subject to taxation in SaVan-
nah. 1t is the collection of these parts
of the executions that the court is ask
ed permanently to enjoin and restrain.
The city has been in the habit of re-
quiring the return for taxation by non
resident corporations, of the character
of the Armour Packing Company, do
ing business in Savannah, of the &C
counts due the Savannah houses. If
it should be determined that the city
has no right to collect such taxes, it
will make a very serious difference in
the amount of it's collections. In the
suit now pending the company is rep
resented by Messrs. O'Connor, O'Byrne
and Hartridge.