Court Opinion

ID: 9605866
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:42:49.328179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:30.705040
License: Public Domain

Justice Huskins
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority view that a commercial chicken hatchery “manufactures” the baby chicks which are hatched in its place of business. If the hen that lays and hatches her eggs is not in the “manufacturing” business, certainly a commercial hatchery doesn’t qualify for the title. I would interpret G.S. 105-164(1) (h) and G.S. 105-164.6(1) accordingly and leave it to the General Assembly to include commercial hatcheries among the industries entitled to the one percent use tax rate on machinery purchased for use in such business.
As a matter of equal treatment, commercial hatcheries are entitled to the favorable one percent tax rate the same as manufacturing and industrial plants which use mill machinery or mill machinery parts and accessories. But there is a limit to interpretative reaching and stretching for the sake of uniformity beyond which courts should not go. Such is the case here. Every layman of normal intelligence knows that a hatchery does not “manufacture” baby chicks, and the law does not require judges to be more ignorant than other people. I therefore vote to reverse the Court of Appeals and reinstate the judgment of the trial court that the hatchery operated by plaintiff is not a manufacturing industry or plant within the meaning of the tax statutes involved.