Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/248/165/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 01:51:52+00:00

Document:
This was an action to enforce a tax levied in Humboldt County, Nevada, against the express company. Several objections were interposed, some presenting local, and others federal, questions, but all were overruled and payment of the tax directed. 38 Nev. 505. This writ of error was allowed prior to the Act of September 6, 1916, c. 448, 39 Stat. 726.
The federal questions are all that we can consider, and they are whether the tax was laid on the privilege or act of engaging in interstate commerce, whether the tax proceedings were without due process of law, and whether they otherwise were such as to make the tax a burden on interstate commerce.
The company is a Colorado corporation engaged in the express business in this and other countries. One of its lines extends through Humboldt and other counties in Nevada, over the Southern Pacific Railroad, and is used in both intrastate and interstate commerce, but principally the latter. The tax was for the year 1910.
inaccurately described the property as consisting of the right to carry on an express business there.
Looking only at that entry, there is strong ground for saying that the tax was laid on the privilege or act of doing an express business which was principally interstate. On the other hand, the action of the state board, on which the assessment concededly was predicated, indicates that what was taxed was the company's property in Humboldt County. The difference is vital, for, consistently with the commerce clause of the federal Constitution, the state could not tax the privilege or act of engaging in interstate commerce, but could tax the company's property within the state, although chiefly employed in such commerce. Adams Express Co. v. Ohio, 165 U. S. 194, 165 U. S. 220; s.c., 166 U. S. 166 U.S. 185, 166 U. S. 218; Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Ry. Co. v. Texas, 210 U. S. 217, 210 U. S. 225-227; Cudahy Packing Co. v. Minnesota, 246 U. S. 450, 246 U. S. 453.
$300 for every mile of railroad over which this defendant transacted business and apportioned said assessment or tax to the various counties of the state in accordance with the number of miles of such railroad so situated within said county, and that the tax herein sued for was not otherwise levied or assessed."
A want of due process of law in the sense of the Fourteenth Amendment is asserted because the valuation by the state board was made without notice to the company or according it an opportunity to be heard. Assuming that the premise is correct (as to which the record is not entirely clear), we are unable to accept the conclusion. In Nevada, the mode of enforcing a tax such as this is by a judicial proceeding wherein process issues and an opportunity is afforded for a full hearing. Only after there is a judgment sustaining the tax is payment enforced. Rev.Laws 1912, §§ 3659-3665. This, as repeatedly has been held, satisfies the requirements of due process of law. Hagar v. Reclamation District, 111 U. S. 701; Winona & St. Peter Land Co. v. Minnesota, 159 U. S. 526, 159 U. S. 537; Gallup v. Schmidt, 183 U. S. 300, 183 U. S. 307.
therefrom that a valuation of $300 per mile, as fixed by the board, was not excessive. It may be that the showing was not complete, but, even if so, it was the company's showing, and was all that was before the court. After examining it, we think it discloses no ground for condemning the tax as a burden on interstate commerce.
* Revised Laws 1912, §§ 3621, 3622, 3624, 3797-3801, 3807.

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