“ The trial court concluded as matter of law that, where the plaintiff made and collected a charge for carrying oil, that charge became, under the applicable statutes, the sole and exclusive basis for the collection of the transportation tax. It therefore held the additional assessments in the first and second claims wholly invalid, and gave the plaintiff an award for all that had been exacted from it under those assessments. The Court of Appeals sustained that ruling. ”

“ The plaintiff, an Oklahoma corporation, owns pipe lines leading into Tulsa, Okl., from oil fields in that state, and operates its lines in the transportation, intrastate, of crude oil. All of its stock is owned by Cosden & Co., another Oklahoma corporation, which operates an oil refinery at Tulsa. While not stated in the findings, the evidence shows that the two corporations are under substantially the same management, have the same offices, and in part have the same employees. ”

“ It therefore was necessary to resort to the accustomed rate of other carriers in the same field as a basis for the tax. Their accustomed rate for gathering service was 12 1/2 cents per barrel. The additional assessments were made on a basis of 20 cents per barrel, and, to the extent that they rested on the difference between a rate of 12 1/2 cents and a rate of 20 cents, they were excessive and invalid. As the plaintiff had paid the excess, it was entitled to recover it, but the recovery should not have included what was attributable to the gathering charge of 12 1/2 cents per barrel. ”

“ The plaintiff is engaged chiefly in carrying oil for Cosden & Co., but it also carries large quantities for others. It does not hold itself out as a common carrier, is not required by the state to file or publish rates or tariffs, and does not file or promulgate either. Common carrier pipe lines operating in the vicinity of the plaintiff's lines have both trunk lines and gathering lines, and also tariff stations at which oil is received into the trunk lines. The plaintiff has no tariff stations and receives oil at any place along its lines where it can obtain the oil. ”

“ It is true that the evidence is set out without any attempt at condensation or narration; but it is also true that the plaintiff expressly consented to the allowance of the bill in this form, and that the Court of Appeals not only made no criticism of the bill, but examined the evidence and rejected the third claim as without necessary evidential support. ”

“ Both recognize that there may be cases where the carrier, by reason of owning the oil or for other reasons, does not receive the compensation which it otherwise would receive; and both provide, although in somewhat different terms, for using the rates of other carriers for like services as a basis for computing the tax in such cases. We do not overlook the clause 'if the carrier received payment for such transportation' in the provision of the 1917 act, nor the clause 'in case no charge for transportation is made' in the provision of the 1918 act. ”

“ The evidence is not of large volume. Besides five pages of stipulated facts, it includes twenty pages of testimony given by three witnesses and thirty pages of documents. Without doubt much of it could have been condensed and narrated without in any wise affecting its purport or substance, [6] but other parts, particularly some of the documents, are of such a nature that a literal reproduction well might have been regarded as essential to a proper understanding of them. ”

“ While not appearing in the findings, the stipulated facts included the following:
'Any pipe line reaching from any point where oil is purchased or produced to the trunk or main line or to storage tanks at or near the main or trunk line or to tank farms is called a gathering line, without regard to its size, the distance, or the amount of oil carried through such line to the trunk or main pipe line, or to the trunk or main pipe line storage tanks, or to a tank farm. ”

“ In this the fact is overlooked that it was the Commissioner who made the additional assessments now in question and refused the application for a refund. But it does appear that, while this suit has been pending, the Commissioner in several instances has allowed applications for a refund on the basis of the construction now asserted. Of that construction it suffices to say that it has been neither uniform nor of long standing, and that in these circumstances we would not be justified in yielding to it. ”