Court Opinion

ID: 9858406
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:22:32.347416+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:54:08.695432
License: Public Domain

On Petition to Eehear
The complainant, Transportation Company, has filed herein a forceful re-argument of the propositions heretofore so ably argued, as a petition to rehear. There are *526numerous cases cited herein which were not referred to in the original brief but none of these are in point or governing as to the proposition herein decided. We have very carefully read and re-read this petition along with the authorities therein cited and must frankly say that they have not changed our mind.
Among the cases cited in this petition is the case of Bruce Motor Freight, Inc., v. Lauterbach, 247 Iowa 956, 77 N.W.2d 613, which was decided by the Supreme Court of Iowa on June 19, 1956. This case is very strongly relied upon by the petitioner in support of the propositions here raised. We think though that the following sentence taken from this Iowa opinion shows clearly how this case differs from the case now before us and is therefore not in point. That Court says:
‘ ‘ The motor vehicles and trailers were all purchased, or leased by or to appellees for use in interstate transportation, and for no other purpose. There was no ‘taxable moment’ as to any of the personal property involved in these cases prior to its being placed in interstate transportation.” 77 N.W.2d 620.
All of the cases cited in this petition to rehear are sound, as we see them, based on the facts there considered, but in our view none of them factually meets the situation in the instant case. Frankly we feel that our original opinion expresses the correct viewpoint and that it would certainly be mere repetition if we tried to again state what we have there stated. We have no argument with the propositions decided in any one of these cases based upon the taxable event as shown by the facts of each of those particular cases.
*527The questions raised originally in this lawsuit and now again re-argued relate to whether a lease of vehicles, which are subsequently employed in interstate commerce, is sufficiently disjointed from that interstate commerce to constitute an event wherein the State could levy a tax thereon. We particularly answered this question on pages 942, 943 of 305 S.W.2d, of our original opinion and herein attempted to show that the tax here, as we saw it, was based on the transfer of these trucks under this lease (that was the instance of tax) and not on the mere execution of the lease.
This tax as levied in this act is not a tax attempted to be levied upon the receipts from interstate commerce. So far as we know all authorities are to the effect that a State cannot levy a tax upon receipts derived from interstate commerce. As we pointed out in our original opinion the lessor (complainant in this action) in that lease had nothing whatever to do with the use of the property in interstate commerce. Under this lease the lessee of these trucks could have used them entirely within the State of Tennessee. If he had done so there would absolutely be no claim that the taxable event of leasing these trucks had anything to do with its theory of non-taxability.
The tax in question here is not upon gross receipts of any character, but upon the privilege of engaging in a certain type of business — that is, the leasing of tangible personal property. We cited authorities in our original opinion to support such taxation. The receipts from this business herein compromise merely the measure of the tax. Merely because some of these receipts come from interstate business is because the lessee so willed it and *528not because tlie State lias attempted to in anywise assess a tax on interstate receipts.
As we said in our original opinion this to us has been a very interesting case, it has been exceptionally well presented and well briefed. We are sorry that we cannot agree with counsel but it just happens that we cannot and we feel that what we have said in our original opinion answers the matter completely and that that is the logical, reasonable method and way in which the lawsuit should be decided. Being of this mind it results that the petition to rehear must be overruled.