Court Opinion

ID: 9641519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:33:49.360875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:38.079213
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Appellant seems to me so completely in the business of renting trucks, rather than “of transporting property for hire,” that I do not believe the decision below should stand. Admittedly that is so far true of some 90 per cent of its business that as to that there is not even a claim of taxability. As to the rest, the unpaid services in looking after some details of the personnel — apparently valuable because of appellant’s ability to make arrangements with the unions and to afford employers insulation from such negotiations — do not seem to me to change the essential significance of the final control over the operations of the trucks left with appellant’s customers. It is to be noted that the payments were based entirely upon the time-mileage use of the trucks, not upon carriage of specific goods. This was significant to show nontaxability as to the 90 per cent of the business; it *739should not be overlooked as to this small balance. Further there is surely an anomaly in saying that this small gratuitous service for this limited group of customers renders the entire service as to them, renting and all, completely taxable.