Source: http://openjurist.org/print/25332
Timestamp: 2015-05-22 09:01:04
Document Index: 318022373

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 274', '§ 400', '§ 400', '§ 384', '§ 384', '§ 24', '§ 41', '§ 41']

326 US 620 Hillsborough Tp Somerset County Nj v. Cromwell
326 US 620 Hillsborough Tp Somerset County Nj v. Cromwell 326 U.S. 620
66 S.Ct. 445
90 L.Ed. 358
HILLSBOROUGH TP., SOMERSET COUNTY, N.J., et al.v.CROMWELL.
This action was brought by respondent under the Declaratory Judgment Act, Judicial Code, § 274d, 28 U.S.C. § 400, 28 U.S.C.A. § 400, to have declared null and void certain assessments on intangible personal property entered for the years 1940 and 1941 by the Collector of Hillsborough Township, Somerset County, New Jersey.1 The jurisdiction of the federal court in New Jersey was invoked by reason of diversity of citizenship and the allegation that the taxing authorities had consistently, systematically and intentionally singled out respondent for discriminatory treatment in the assessment of taxes for which she was without remedy under the laws and decisions of New Jersey. It was prayed that the assessments be declared invalid as in contravention of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and of the provisions of applicable New Jersey statutes to which we will later refer. The District Court denied a motion to dismiss the gave judgment for respondent. 56 F.Supp. 41. The Circuit Court of Appeals, 3 Cir., affirmed. 149 F.2d 617. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted because the asserted conflict of that decision with Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Huffman, 319 U.S. 293, 63 S.Ct. 1070, 87 L.Ed. 1407, raised an important problem concerning the relationship between the federal courts and state taxing authorities.
Sec. 267 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 384, 28 U.S.C.A. § 384, provides that suits in equity shall not be sustained in the federal courts 'in any case where a plain, adequate, and complete remedy may be had at law.' That principle has long been recognized as having 'peculiar force' in cases where the federal courts were asked to enjoin the collection of a state tax. Matthews v. Rodgers, 284 U.S. 521, 525, 52 S.Ct. 217, 219, 76 L.Ed. 447, and cases cited. 'The scrupulous regard for the rightful independence of state governments which should at all times actuate the federal courts, and a proper reluctance to interfere by injunction with their fiscal operations, require that such relief should be denied in every case where the asserted federal right may be preserved without it.' Id., 284 U.S. page 525, 52 S.Ct. page 219. Where the remedy at law is 'plain, adequate, and complete', it is the one which must be pursued even for the protection of any federal right. That practice of the federal equity courts was given further recognition and sanction by Congress in the Johnson Act, 48 Stat. 775, as amended, 50 Stat. 738, § 24(1) of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 41(1), 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(1), which provides that 'no district court shall have jurisdiction of any suit to enjoin, suspend, or restrain the assessment, levy, or collection of any tax imposed by or pursuant to the laws of any State where a plain, speedy, and efficient remedy may be had at law or in equity in the courts of such State.' It was against that background that we held in Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. v. Huffman, supra, that the policy which led federal courts of equity to refrain from enjoining the collection of allegedly unlawful state taxes should likewise govern the exercise of their discretion in withholding relief under the Declaratory Judgments Act.
The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the individual from state action which sel cts him out for discriminatory treatment by subjecting him to taxes not imposed on others of the same class. The right is the right to equal treatment. He may not complain if equality is achieved by increasing the same taxes of other members of the class to the level of his own. The constitutional requirement, however, is not satisfied if a State does not itself remove the discrimination, but imposes on him against whom the discrimination has been directed the burden of seeking an upward revision of the taxes of other members of the class. Sioux City Bridge Co. v. Dakota County, 260 U.S. 441, 445-447, 43 S.Ct. 190, 191, 192, 67 L.Ed. 340, 28 A.L.R. 979; Iowa-Des Moines Nat'l Bank v. Bennett, 284 U.S. 239, 247, 52 S.Ct. 133, 136, 76 L.Ed. 265; Cumberland Local Co. v. Board of Revision, 284 U.S. 23, 28, 29, 52 S.Ct. 48, 50, 76 L.Ed. 146. The courts of New Jersey in a long line of decisions2 have held that a taxpayer who has been singled out for discriminatory taxation may not obtain equalization by reduction of his own assessment. His remedy is restricted to proceedings against other members of his class for the purpose of having their taxes increased. The rule was stated in Royal Mfg. Co. v. Board of Equalization, 76 N.J.L. 402, 70 A. 978, affirmed 78 N.J.L. 337, 74 A. 525, as follows: '* * * the county boards are required to secure taxation of all property at its true value; so that the fact that the property of A. is assessed at its true value, and the property of other taxpayers within the same district is assessed below its true value, affords A. no ground for demanding a reduction of his valuation, though it does entitle him to apply for an increase in the valuation of the others.' 76 N.J.L. pages 404, 405, 7