Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/78/423/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:28:37+00:00

Document:
were held, and its moneys received and disbursed, and the corporate seal kept.
A statute of Missouri enacts that "shares of stock and all other interests held in steamboats, keel boats, wharf boats, and all other vessels," shall be taxable for state purposes, and by its charter, the City of St. Louis has authority to tax all property within the city so taxable.
In this state of statutory enactment, the city authorities of St. Louis laid a tax on the value of all ferry boats used by the Wiggins Ferry Company in ferrying passengers and cargo on the Mississippi River between the City of St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, in Illinois, on the opposite shore. The ferry company refused to pay the tax on the ground that these boats were not "property within the city," and the question was whether they were so or not.
ferry boats, for which wharf boats the city charged the company a stipulated annual wharfage, which was also paid. The company was assessed and taxed for the value of these wharf boats within the city limits, in addition to the ferry license and wharfage.
The stockholders of the ferry company resided mainly in St. Louis. Some, however, resided in Ohio, some in New York, and some elsewhere, but none in Illinois. The meetings of the company as a corporation for the election of directors had been generally held in Illinois, but the meetings of the directors for the election of its officers and appointment of its employees had been generally held in St. Louis, Missouri. All the principal business of the company done by its directors, superintendent, and other agents, had been transacted in St. Louis. The money collected and received by it for ferriages and other dues were kept in St. Louis, and the books of the company were kept there, and some of the disbursements of the company were there made by its treasurer. The personal property belonging to the company, assessed for taxes by the city, for which these suits were brought, consisted solely of its already mentioned ferry boats. On these as well as on its other property it was duly assessed in Illinois, and paid taxes there. The ferry boats were enrolled at St. Louis under the laws of the United States; that is to say, under the acts of 1789 and 1792, which require every vessel to be registered in the district to which she belongs, and declare that her home port shall be that at or near to which her owner resides.
Upon this same state of facts, the Supreme Court of Missouri, in City of St. Louis v. Wiggins Ferry Company, [Footnote 2] had adjudged that the company was bound to pay the tax.
within it. The fact that the principal business office of the company was in St. Louis, and that the ferry boats were enrolled at the port of St. Louis, under the United States laws, did not, as the court below considered, essentially change the case. Judgment having been accordingly entered for the ferry company, the city excepted to the law as declared by the court upon the facts, and tendered its bill of exceptions, which was signed and sealed.
The plaintiff in error instituted five suits in the St. Louis Circuit Court for the recovery of taxes alleged to be due from the ferry company to the city. Upon the petition of the company they were removed into the circuit court of the United States for that district. In that court, by the consent of the parties, the causes were consolidated and thereafter proceeded to trial as one case. The counsel upon both sides entered into a written stipulation waiving a jury, and the cause was submitted to the court, pursuant to the act of Congress of March 3, 1865. The court found the facts specially, and the finding is a part of the record. Judgment was given for the defendant. The city excepted and has brought the case here for review.
The bill of exceptions was unnecessary. The facts having been specially found by the court, they are before us for examination as if they were embodied in the special verdict of a jury. The question presented for our consideration, as prescribed by the statute, is whether they are sufficient to support the judgment. The bill of exceptions gives them no effect which they would not have had without it and raises no question which would not have been as well presented if it had not been taken.
and passengers across the Mississippi River between the City of St. Louis and the opposite Illinois shore. The company was required to pay a specific sum for a license, and a tax was imposed upon its wharf boat, attached to the city landing. Both were duly paid. Payment of the taxes upon the ferry boats was refused, and the several suits, consolidated into the one before us, were instituted by the city to recover the amount claimed to be due.
Where there is jurisdiction neither as to person nor property, the imposition of a tax would be ultra vires and void. If the legislature of a state should enact that the citizens or property of another state or country should be taxed in the same manner as the persons and property within its own limits and subject to its authority, or in any other manner whatsoever, such a law would be as much a nullity as if in conflict with the most explicit constitutional inhibition. Jurisdiction is as necessary to valid legislative as to valid judicial action.
was not to tax the property through the proprietor, but to tax the things themselves by reason of their being "within the city." The point for us to decide, therefore, is whether they are covered by the legal provisions under which the taxes were imposed. If the taxing officer acted without authority the taxes were invalid, and the city is not entitled to recover in this action.
"when not in actual use, were laid up by the Illinois shore and were forbidden, by a general ordinance of the City of St. Louis regulating ferries and ferry boats, to remain at the St. Louis wharf or landing longer than ten minutes at a time."
that state, and from the inherent law of its nature could not emigrate or become a citizen elsewhere. As the boats were laid up on the Illinois shore when not in use and the pilots and engineers who ran them lived there, that locality, under the circumstances, must be taken to be their home port. They did not so abide within the city as to become incorporated with and form a part of its personal property. [Footnote 13] Hence they were beyond the jurisdiction of the authorities by which the taxes were assessed, and the validity of the taxes cannot be maintained. [Footnote 14] In our opinion, the facts found are sufficient to support the judgment.
It has been insisted ably and learnedly by the counsel for the defendant in error that the taxes in question are taxes upon the tonnage of vessels engaged in interstate commerce, and are prohibited by the Constitution of the United States. No argument as to this aspect of the case has been submitted by the counsel upon the other side. We have not found it necessary to consider the subject, and we express no opinion upon it.
The reader who does not recall the provisions of this act may see then supra, towards the bottom of page 78 U. S. 141.
Glaize v. South Carolina Railroad Co., 1 Strobhart 72; Cromwell's Executors v. Charleston Insurance and Trust Co., 2 Richardson 512.
Bank of Augusta v. Earle, 13 Pet. 588; Lafayette Insurance Co. v. French, 18 How. 405.
McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 428; Providence Bank v. Billings, 4 Pet. 563.
Story's Conflict of Laws § 379; Broom's Maxims 501, 502; In re Ewin, 1 Crompton & Jervis 156.
International Life Assurance Company v. Commissioners of Taxes, 28 Barbour 318; Hoyt v. Commissioners, 23 id. 228; Story's Conflict of Laws 550.
Finley v. Philadelphia, 32 Pa.St. 381.
Wilson v. Mayor of New York, 4 E.D.Smith 678; Hoyt v. Commissioners, 23 N.Y. (Court of Appeals) 228.
1 Stat. at Large 55.
3 Kent 133, 170; Hill v. Golden Gate, Newberry 308; S.B. Superior, ib. 181; Jordan v. Young, 37 Me. 276.
Hays v. Pacific Steamship Company, 17 How. 596; City of New Albany v. Meekin, 3 Ind. 481.
Railroad Company v. Jackson, 7 Wall. 262.

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