Case Name: The Ordinary of Bibb County, plaintiff in error, vs. the Central Railroad and Banking Company et. al., defendants in error
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1869-12
Citations: 40 Ga. 646
Docket Number: 
Parties: The Ordinary of Bibb County, plaintiff in error, vs. the Central Railroad and Banking Company et. al., defendants in error.
Judges: 
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 40
Pages: 646–655

Head Matter:
The Ordinary of Bibb County, plaintiff in error, vs. the Central Railroad and Banking Company et. al., defendants in error.
By the charters of certain railroad companies they are authorized “ to „ purchase and hold all real estate that may be necessary and proper, for the pui-pose of laying, building and sustaining” said railroads ; and when it is declared in said charters, “that the said railroads, and the appurtenances of the same, shall not be subjected to be taxed higher thaln one-half of one per cent.' upon their annual nett income, and no'municipal, or other corporation, shall have power to tax the stock of said companies, but may tax any property, real or personal, of said companies, within the jurisdiction of said corporation, in the ratio of taxation of like property Held, that all the property of said companies, that is necessary and proper, for the purpose of laying, building, and sustaining said railroads, constitutes a part of the - capital stock of said companies, and is not liable to be taxed in any other manner than is specified in their respective charters; but that any other property owned by said companies, which is not necessary and proper for the purpose of laying, building and sustaining said roads, and not appertaining thereto, may be taxed by the county, or other corporation, in the ratio of taxation of like property.
Held, further, that the property of the respective railroad companies specified in the record, is not liable to be taxed by the county of Bibb, except lot number two, in block seventy-eight; and that the Court below erred in holding, and deciding, that the said lot number two, in block seventy-eight, was exempt from taxation by the county.
Taxation of Railroad property.' Decided by Judge Cole. Chambers. Bibb County. October, 1869.
The Ordinary of Bibb county endeavored to levy a tax upon the property of the railroad companies having their termini in Macon. His right to do so was denied by the companies. The Southwestern Railroad Company and the Central Railroad and Banking Company agreed to submit the facts to Judge Cole and let him decide between. them, reserving the right to review his decision by writ of error to this Court. The following facts were agreed upon and delivered tb the Judge: The property of the Southwestern Railroad Company in said county consists of its track, its office for the transaction of the company’s business, and connected therewith is the freight depot and warehouse, a round-house, where engines ,are kept when not in use, and connected therewith is a workshop used by the company solely for the purpose of repairing and keeping in safe and complete running order the cars, engines and machinery used and employed upon its line of road. When there is not enough repairing on hand to keep the company’s mechanics employed, new work, such as the wood-work of passenger and freight cars, for use on said railroad, is manufactured. This work-shop consists of a wood and carpenters’ shop, where repairs are made on the wood-work of cars and engines, a blacksmith shop, where repairs are made on the ironwork of cars, engines and.machinery used upon said-railroad, a foundry-shed, where brasses or brass castings used in repairing cars and engines used upon said railroad are cast, and a paint-shop where cars and engines used on said railroad are painted after being repaired; all these are connected with the twain line of said railroad by tracks running into said work-shops. Besides these, it owns lots Nos. 2 and 8, in blocks 78 and 89, in Macon, which said company has purchased for the purpose of erecting thereon their work-shops, that being a more eligible site than the one now occupied by said shops, and said company intends to remove them to said lots.
As yet said Nos. 2 and 8 are not used for railroad purposes except that on No. 2 is a house used for keeping oil and a privy for the use of the employees of said railroad company. ’
The amendment of the charter of the Southwestern Railroad Company, authorising an increase of its capital stock beyond $3,500,000 00, assented to on the 10th of December, 1860, was never accepted by the company and the company never issued any stock under said Act.
The. Central Railroad and Banking Company has recently bought certain lots in Macon at the foot of Mulberry street, between Fifth and Sixth streets for the purpose of changing the location of its track and erecting upon them a depot and transferring its depot from the east to the west side of Ocmulgee river. ■ Said purchase was necessary to get the right of way, for change of location of roadbed and to obtain ground upon which to er*ect its depot and warehouses, and consists of Nos. 1, 7 and 8, in square 5; No. 2 and parts of Nos. 7 and 8 in square 16; Court-house square; Nos. 3, 4 and 7 in square 25; Nos. 1, 2, 6 and 8, jmd parts of Nos. 3 and 4 in square 36; part of No. 5 in square 45; Nos. 1, 2, 6 in square 56; all marked upon a map of the city exhibited, and through which it is proposed to run said Central Railroad.
The general passenger depot in Macon is used by all the railroads centering in Macon, and exclusively for railroad purposes, i. e., for the arrival and departure of trains, waiting rooms for passengers, offices for the sále of tickets and rooms for the safe-keeping of unclaimed baggage. There is in this building a second story, in which is a large room built for an eating room for passengers; but 'it is not nor has been for eight years used for that purpose nor otherwise than as sleeping rooms for some of the employees of said railroads.
The Southwestern Railroad Company and the Central Railroad and Banking Company have paid to the State a tax of one-half of one per cent-, upon their nett annual incomes for the years for which said Ordinary now claims the right to tax said property for county purposes.
Judge Cole was to decide whether said property or any of it could, under the charters and the laws of the State, be taxed for county purposes, and whether said railroad companies, or either of them, were liable for any other tax than the one-half of one per cent, upon their annual incomes paid as aforesaid, and 'if any of the property was so taxable, to specify which it was.
The Macon and Brunswick Railroad Company, the Macon and Western Railroad Company and the Macon and Augusta Railroad Company,, concentering in Macon with said other railroads, being interested in the question and the Ordinary consenting, were made by consent parties to said submission, but did not specify what property they owned in said county.
Judge Cole decided the tracks of the roads, their water-stations and wood-stations, bridges, cars and engines, their warehouses, yards and places for loading and unloading their cars, the general passenger depot, wood-shops and roundhouses and all their buildings and shops now used by them, were exempt from said county tax becáuse they were neces-sary and proper for sustaining said railroads. He further held that such of their real estate as was not improved and in use was subject to be taxed under the general tax laws until it was improved and used for railroad purposes; but that said number two in block seventy-eight was used for purposes necessary for sustaining said Southwestern Railroad and -was not liable to such county tax. /
The Ordinary assigns as error so .much of said decision as exempts from county taxes the Machine Shops and Round Houses, and said No. 2, in block 78, and holds that the real estate of said railroad companies in said county may be taxed for county purposes only so long as it is unimproved and not used for railroad purposes. In the same bill of exceptions, said railroad companies assign as error so- much of said de cisión as holds that the lots bought exclusively for the purpose of using them for depots, water stations, and other like uses and necessary railroad purposes, are subject to said taxation until they be improved and used for railroad purposes.
S. Hunter, O. A. Lochrane, for the Ordinary.
Whittle & Gustin, Lyon, DeGraeeenreid & Irvin, Lawton, for the Railroad Companies.

Opinion:
Warner, J.
The Court in this case is unanimous in its judgment in reversing the judgment of the Court below, but for different reasons. I shall state the grounds upon which my own judgment is based. The charters of the respective railroad companies authorise them "to purchase and hold all real' estate that may be necessary and proper for the purpose of laying, building and sustaining said railroads, and that the said railroads and the appurtenances of the same, shall not be subject to be taxed higher 'than one-half of one per cent, upon their annual nett income, and no municipal or other corporation shall have power to tax the stock of said companies, but may tax any property real and personal of said companies within the jurisdiction of said corporation, in the ratio of taxation of like property." What is the "stock" of said railroad companies ? Bouvier defines stock to be, " the capital of corporations; this is usually divided into shares of a definite value, as one hundred dollars, fifty dollars, per share." 2d Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 531. The stock of these companies then consists of their capital invested in such property as may be necessary and proper for conducting the business for which they were chartered. All the property of these companies that is necessary and proper, for the purpose of laying, building and sustaining their respective-railroads, constitutes a part of the capital stock of said companies, and is not liable to be taxed in any other manner than is specified in their respective charters. Any other property owned by said companies, which is not necessary and proper for the laying, building and sustaining said railroads, and not necessarily appertaining thereto for that purpose may be taxed by'the county, or other corporation, in the same ratio of taxation of like property. The companies cannot be taxed twice on their capital stock employed in conducting the legitimate and necessary business thereof under their respective charters, once by the State, and then by the counties, or other corporations; for it is expressly stipulated in their contract with the State, that, they shall' not be taxed higher than one-half of one per cent, on their annual nett income, find that no municipal, or other corporation, shall have. power to tax the stoeJc of said companies. - If they pay to the State the stipulated tax on their nett annual income arising from the use of their capital stock, and then be required to pay a county or'corporation tax upo,n the property necessarily used and employed as a part of their capital stock, which produces their nett annual income, then,y>radically, they are taxed twice, which, in my judgment, would be a violation of their respective charters.
The judgment of this Court, upon the statement of facts contained in the record, is that the property of the respective companies specified therein, is not liable to be taxed by the county of Bibb, except lot number two, in block seventy-eight, and that the Court below erred in holding and deciding that lot number two, in block seventy-eight, was exempt from taxation by the couniy.
Let the judgment of £he Court below be reversed.