Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/183/471/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 10:25:03+00:00

Document:
There is nothing in the federal Constitution which forbids a state to reach backward and collect taxes from certain kinds of property which were not at the time collected through lack of statutory provision therefor, or in consequence of a misunderstanding as to the law, or from neglect of administrative officials, without also making provision for collecting the taxes, for the same years, on other property.
"The property of all corporations, whether heretofore or hereafter incorporated, shall be subject to taxation, unless such property be held and used exclusively for religious, educational, or charitable purposes."
"If any assessor, when making his assessments, shall discover that any land in his county was omitted in the assessment roll of either or all of the three previous years, and was then liable to taxation, he shall, in addition to the assessment of such land for that year, assess the same separately for such year or years that may have been so omitted at the just value thereof in such year, noting distinctly the year when such omission occurred, and such assessment shall have the same force and effect as it would have had if made in the year the same was omitted, and taxes shall be levied and collected thereon in like manner and together with the taxes of the year in which the assessment is made; but no lands shall be assessed for more than three years' arrears of taxes, and all lands shall be subject to such taxes omitted to be assessed, into whosesoever hands they may come."
"SEC. 1. That in all cases in which any railroad or the properties thereto belonging or appertaining in this state, in the tax years commencing March 1, 1879, 1880, and 1881, or any of such years, were not assessed for taxes for such years, it shall be the duty of the comptroller to cause the same, or so much thereof, as were not assessed, to be assessed for state and county taxes, and twenty percentum of the taxes so assessed for said years and now unpaid shall be collected at the same time the taxes for the year 1885 shall be assessed and collected, and each year thereafter an additional twenty percentum of said taxes shall be collected at the same time and in the same manner as the taxes for such year are collected, until the whole amount of said unpaid taxes for the years 1879, 1880, and 1881 are paid."
"The taxes to be assessed under this act shall be the same in amount as they would have been had they been assessed in such years or any of them as to which there was a failure to assess."
Laws of Florida 1885, c. 3558.
"SEC. 1. That the state and county taxes assessed by the comptroller of the State of Florida upon any railroads and the properties thereof in said state for the years 1879, 1880, and 1881, under and in pursuance of 'An Act to Provide for the Assessment and Collection of Taxes on Railroads and the Properties Thereof for the Years 1879, 1880, and 1881, as to Which There Was no Assessment,' but which have not been collected, shall be collected, and the payment thereof enforced at the same times and in the same manner as is now or may hereafter be provided by law for the collection and the enforcement of the payment of taxes assessed upon the railroads and the properties thereof in the State of Florida."
Laws of Florida, 1891, c. 4073.
The assessment of railroad property in Florida was not made by the county assessors, but by the comptroller of the state. Acts Florida, 1879, c. 3099, secs. 45-46.
Florida Railway & Navigation Company under foreclosure proceedings. The Florida Railway & Navigation Company was organized on February 29, 1884, by the consolidation of several companies, and on July 1 of that year, it placed upon its properties a trust deed to secure the payment of $10,000,000 bonds.
This bill was filed November 2, 1892, in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for the County of Leon. Its purpose was to restrain the collection of certain taxes and to recover other taxes paid under protest. After three appeals to the supreme court of the state (35 Fla. 625, 39 Fla. 243, 28 So. 861), the final outcome of the litigation was a decree dismissing the plaintiff's bill in toto.
"the sole relief sought in this Court is to obtain a reversal of the decree of the state supreme court, insofar as it reversed the decree of the circuit court enjoining the sale of complainant's lines of railroad for the taxes assessed for the years 1879, 1880, and 1881, such taxes amounting to $96,181.69,"
"By the law of 1885, the state attempted to authorize the assessment of taxes for 1879-1881, but only upon property belonging to railroad companies, though it appears from the record that other properties of like class, i.e., real estate belonging to individuals and owners, not railroad companies, had not been assessed for taxes for such years. "
"It surely cannot be 'due process of law' for the State of Florida in 1885 to arbitrarily impose a burden theretofore unheard of upon security holders who in 1884 had invested their money upon the faith of a title then clear of such burden."
"It surely cannot be less than a denial of the equal protection of the laws for the State of Florida in 1885 to impose burdens theretofore unheard of upon the property of railroad companies which under the laws of Florida is real estate, while permitting other real estate, otherwise owned, to escape such burdens."
The decision of the supreme court of the state establishes that these proceedings are not in conflict with the Constitution of Florida. The single question, therefore, to consider, is whether there is anything in the federal Constitution which forbids a state to reach backward and collect taxes from certain kinds of property which were not at the time collected through lack of statutory provisions therefor, or in consequence of a misunderstanding as to the law, or from neglect of administrative officials, without also making provision for collecting the taxes for the same years on other property. It will be perceived that there was no new levy of taxes. No act of the legislature was passed imposing an additional burden upon the property of the state in general, or upon any particular property, but the case is one in which, general levies having been made for the years named, certain property which ought to have paid taxes under them -- and thus contributed its share of the expenses of the state -- failed to do so, and the effort is to compel that property to discharge its obligation. The objection is not that the property ought not during those years to have paid its proportion of the taxes, but that it ought not now to be compelled to pay such proportion, because certain other property was similarly situated, and no effort is made to compel payment from it.
duties of assessment as to the property committed to his care, and omitted any direction to the county assessors. This omission, it is contended, makes the act unconstitutional. In other words, the legislature may not pass an act directing one officer to discharge his duty unless it couples therewith a direction to other officers charged with kindred duty to perform theirs. It would seem to follow that, if the legislature had on the same day passed another act with like command to the county assessors, the two acts together would be constitutional, though each, standing alone, would not be, and as the time of its passage is not generally of the essence of a statute, it would also seem to follow that, if the legislature should today pass an act directing the county assessors to assess delinquent real estate for those years, this late enactment would give constitutional vitality to that passed years ago. How far can this theory of constitutionality be sustained?
"the enforced proportional contribution of persons and property, levied by the authority of the state for the support of the government and for all public needs."
Cooley on Taxation, 1st ed., pp. 13 and 1. They are obligations of the highest character, for only as they are discharged is the continued existence of government possible. They are not cancelled and discharged by the failure of duty on the part of any tribunal or officer, legislative or administrative. Payment alone discharges the obligation, and until payment, the state may proceed by all proper means to compel the performance of the obligation. No statutes of limitation run against the state, and it is a matter of discretion with it to determine how far into the past it will reach to compel performance of this obligation.
No question of bona fide purchase arises, for it was held by the supreme court that, inasmuch as no assessment of this railroad property had been made during the years named, and no lien thereon for taxes established, a bona fide purchaser would have taken it free from any liability for such taxes; but it was also held that the present owner was not a bona fide purchaser, and, this being a local matter, the decision is conclusive upon this Court.
"The provision in the Fourteenth Amendment, that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, was not intended to prevent a state from adjusting its system of taxation in all proper and reasonable ways. It may, if it chooses, exempt certain classes of property from any taxation at all, such as churches, libraries, and the property of charitable institutions. It may impose different specific taxes upon different trades and professions, and may vary the rates of excise upon various products. It may tax real estate and personal property in a different manner. It may tax visible property only, and not tax securities for payment of money. It may allow deductions for indebtedness, or not allow them. . . . We think that we are safe in saying that the Fourteenth Amendment was not intended to compel the state to adopt an iron rule of equal taxation."
of assessment and taxation. Doubtless it would prohibit a state from selecting some obnoxious person and casting upon his property the sole burden of taxation, or a burden differing from that cast upon others whose property was similarly situated, but it does not prevent a state from exercising its judgment as to the property to be taxed and the modes of taxation, providing all property similarly situated is treated in the same way.
"The state may impose taxes upon the corporation as an entity existing under its laws, as well as upon the capital stock of the corporation or its separate corporate property. And the manner in which its value shall be assessed and the rate of taxation, however arbitrary or capricious, are mere matters of legislative discretion. It is not for us to suggest in any case that a more equitable mode of assessment or rate of taxation might be adopted than the one prescribed by the legislature of the state; our only concern is with the validity of the tax -- all else lies beyond the domain of our jurisdiction."
In Home Insurance Company v. New York, 134 U. S. 594, a tax upon the corporate franchise or business of corporations, graded according to the dividends declared by the corporation, was sustained, the Court, on p. 134 U. S. 606, referring in these words to the objection that the tax was in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment.
by it. And when such legislation applies to artificial bodies, it is not open to objection if all such bodies are treated alike under similar circumstances and conditions in respect to the privileges conferred upon them and the liabilities to which they are subjected. Under the statute of New York, all corporations, joint stock companies, and associations of the same kind are subjected to the same tax. There is the same rule applicable to all under the same conditions in determining the rate of taxation. There is no discrimination in favor of one against another of the same class. Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U. S. 29, 113 U. S. 32; Soon Hing v. Crowley, 113 U. S. 703, 113 U. S. 709; Missouri Pacific Railway v. Humes, 115 U. S. 512, 115 U. S. 523; Missouri Pacific Railway v. Mackey, 127 U. S. 205, 127 U. S. 209; Minneapolis &c. Railway Co. v. Beckwith, 129 U. S. 26, 129 U. S. 32."
"Nor, in respect of taxation was the amendment intended to compel the state to adopt an iron rule of equality, to prevent the classification of property for taxation at different rates, or to prohibit legislation in that regard, special either in the extent to which it operates or the objects sought to be obtained by it. It is enough that there is no discrimination in favor of one as against another of the same class. Bell's Gap Railroad v. Pennsylvania, 134 U. S. 232; Home Insurance Co. v. New York, 134 U. S. 594; Pacific Express Co. v. Seibert, 142 U. S. 339. And due process of law, within the meaning of the amendment, is secured if the laws operate on all alike, and do not subject the individual to an arbitrary exercise of the powers of government. Leeper v. Texas, 139 U. S. 462."
provision of the Constitution of Virginia exempting tracts of less than one thousand acres from forfeiture is a discrimination against the owners of tracts containing one thousand acres or more, which amounts to a denial to citizens or landowners of the latter class of the equal protection of the laws. We do not concur in this view. The evil intended to be remedied by the Constitution and laws of West Virginia was the persistent failure of those who owned or claimed to own large tracts of lands patented in the last century or early in the present century to put them on the land books, so that the extent and boundaries of such tracts could be easily ascertained by the officers charged with the duty of assessing and collecting taxes. Where the tract was a small one, the probability was that it was actually occupied by someone, and its extent or boundary could be readily ascertained for purposes of assessment and taxation. We can well understand why one policy could be properly adopted as to large tracts which the necessities of the public revenue did not require to be prescribed as to small tracts. The judiciary should be very reluctant to interfere with the taxing systems of a state, and should never do so unless that which the state attempts to do is in palpable violation of the constitutional rights of the owners of property. Under this view of our duty, we are unwilling to hold that the provision referred to is repugnant to the clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbidding a denial of the equal protection of the laws."
"There is no imperative requirement that taxation shall be equal. . . . The legislature must decide when and how and for what public purposes a tax shall be levied, and must select the subjects of taxation. This is legislative, and the legislative conclusion in the premises must be accepted as proper and final."
with these views. True, in that case, a tax levied for a special purpose by the city was adjudged void on the ground that it was levied exclusively on real property, but the decision was placed upon a conflict with the Constitution of the state as interpreted by its supreme court. In other words, the supreme court of the state having in several cases held that such a discrimination avoided a tax, this Court simply followed those decisions, saying (p. 67 U. S. 518) that it considered itself "bound in cases like this to follow the settled adjudications of the highest state court giving constructions to the Constitution and laws of the state."
In the light of these decisions, if the State of Florida had deemed it for the best interests of its people to encourage the building of railroads by exempting their property from taxation, such exemption could not have been adjudged in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment, even though thereby the burden of taxation upon other property in the state was largely increased. Indeed, that was the policy of the state prior to the Constitution of 1868. And, conversely, if the state had subjected railroads to taxation, while exempting some other class of property, it would be difficult to find anything in the Fourteenth Amendment to overthrow its action. The mere fact that such legislation may operate with harshness is not, of itself, sufficient to justify the court in declaring it unconstitutional. These matters of classification are of state policy, to be determined by the state, and the federal government is not charged with the duty of supervising its action.
"This statute rests on the assumption that, generally speaking, all property subject to taxation has been reached, and aims only to provide for those accidents which may happen under any system of taxation, in consequence of which here and there some item of property has escaped its proper burden, and it may well be that the legislature, in view of the probabilities of changes in the title or situs of personal property, might deem it unwise to attempt to charge it with back taxes, while at the same time, by reason of the stationary character of real estate, it might elect to proceed against that. At any rate, if it did so, it would violate no provision of the federal Constitution, and whether it did so or not was a matter to be determined finally by the supreme court of the state."
"Doubtless it [the Fourteenth Amendment] would prohibit a state from selecting some obnoxious person, and casting upon his property the sole burden of taxation or a burden differing from that cast upon others whose property was similarly situated."
It appears quite immaterial that, under the act of 1883, the property was to be assessed by the county assessors, and in the act of 1885 by the state comptroller. The wrong done to the railway company is not in the selection of an agent to collect the taxes, but in the selection of a specially odious tax -- namely for antecedent years -- and imposing it upon one class of delinquents alone. If, for instance, a license tax varying in amount were imposed upon a dozen different occupations, and by another act subsequently passed were made retroactive for three years, could the legislature, by still another act, made applicable only to those employed in one out of these twelve occupations, make such act retroactive for another three years, without denying to those engaged in that occupation the equal protection of the laws?
series of years, during which, and upon the ground that, the state officers had neglected their duty. If state railway taxes may be made retroactive for three years, and again for another three years, I see no reason why this method of taxation may not be continued indefinitely so long as any property remains from which it may be collected. This kind of discrimination seems to be measurable only by the rapacity of the legislature.

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