Case Name: The Amesbury Woollen and Cotton Manufacturing Company versus The Inhabitants of Amesbury
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1821-10
Citations: 16 Tyng 460
Docket Number: 
Parties: The Amesbury Woollen and Cotton Manufacturing Company versus The Inhabitants of Amesbury
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 17
Pages: 374–376

Head Matter:
The Amesbury Woollen and Cotton Manufacturing Company versus The Inhabitants of Amesbury
Manufacturing corporations are not liable to be taxed for the personal stock employed by them, in the towns where their manufactories are established
Assumpsit to recover back certain sums paid by the plaintiffs, as state, county, and town taxes, in Amesbury.
It was agreed that the plaintiffs are a corporation established in Amesbury, and were taxed by the assessors of that town, for their real and personal estate, for the year 1814, and the five following years; the said taxes upon the said real estate for the said six years, amounting to 179 dollars, 45 cents, and upon their personal estate to 130 dollars, 62 cents ; that the plaintiffs’ property was taken by distress for the taxes of the year 1818, for the costs of which distress the plaintiffs paid, in addition to their taxes, 6 dollars, 45 cents; the taxes for the other years having been paid volunta- * 462 ] rily; and that some of * the stockholders in the said company are inhabitants of Amesbury, and some of ol her towns. It was also agreed that no exception should be taken, as to the taxes upon the said personal estate having been assessed upon the corporation, instead of all the stockholders, or members of the corporation personally.
If the Court should be of opinion that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover for any part of the said taxes, the defendants were to be defaulted, and judgment entered for damages, in a sum before agreed upon by the parties; otherwise the plaintiffs were to become nonsuit.
Webster, for the plaintiffs,
cited and relied on the case of The Salem Iron Factory Company vs. The Inhabitants of Danvers ; expressly deciding that a manufacturing corporation is not taxable for its personal property, in the town where the manufactory is established.
Saltonstall, for the defendants.
Since the decision of the case cited for the plaintiffs, an alteration has been made in the annual tax acts; and now by the fifth section it is enacted, “ That for such goods, &c., or other stock in trade, including stoclc employed in manufactories, ships, or vessels, as are sold, used, or improved in any towns, &c., other than where the owners thereof dwell, such owners shall be respectively taxed therefor, in such towns, &c., and not where they dwell or have their home.” And there was good reason for introducing this new provision. This personal property or stock in trade can be best seen and known in the town where it is sold, used, or improved, or where the business of the corporation is managed. In this way, too, some small compensation was doubtless intended to be made to the towns, for the increase of vice and pauperism, so naturally and generally the consequence of such establishments.
But whether the plaintiffs were regularly taxed in this case or not, there can be no pretence of a right to recover back those taxes, which they paid voluntarily, and without compulsion.
* Webster, in reply. The fact of the plaintiffs having [ * 463 ] paid a portion of these taxes without compulsory process, goes only to the amount of damages.
The new words introduced into the tax acts, which the defendants rely on, cannot have the operation contended for. They were inserted merely to bring into the view of assessors, a species of property which was fast increasing in the state, viz., shares in the stock of these manufacturing corporations. But there is no reference to corporate property, as such. The shares in such corporate stock were to be taxed to the owner of the shares, as other stock in trade was before that time taxed.
10 ñiajs. Rep. 514

Opinion:
By the Court.
The general rule in regard to public taxes is, that every person liable to be taxed, is to be assessed for his personal property in the town of which he is an inhabitant. Some years since, it was a subject of complaint in Boston, and other commercial towns, that many of their wealthy inhabitants removed into towns in the vicinity, and there became inhabitants, although they continued their business in the places of their former residence, under their personal management; thereby evading, in a great degree, their just share of the public charges. The clause cited by the counsel for the defendants was introduced to remedy this inconvenience; and in the year 1814, and since that time, the stock employed in manufactories has been inserted; only intending that persons holding such stock were to be taxed for it, as for their other stock in trade. But it cannot be construed to make such members of manufacturing corporations, as do not live or transact their business in the towns where the manufactory is established, liable to be assessed in such towns, for their shares in such manufactories.
The voluntary payment of a part of the taxes in this case does not affect the right of the plaintiffs to recover the amount of money paid by them upon an illegal assessment.
Defendants defaulted