David Josiah Brewer

Name: Travelers' Insurance Company v. Connecticut — Opinion of the Court
Author: David Josiah Brewer

Summary

“Travelers' Insurance Company v. Connecticut — Opinion of the Court”, is a work by David Josiah Brewer. It explores elements such as nonresident stockholder, taxation and nonresident.

Quotes from Travelers' Insurance Company v… (David Josiah Brewer)

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ Only a small number of the corporations within the scope of the act own taxable real estate to any appreciable amount. Can it be said that the law regulating the taxation of half a dozen different kinds of corporations is really intended to hinder citizens of other states from owning stock in the small number of these corporations that may from time to time invest in taxable real estate; or, that the real substance of the law changes from legitimate taxation to hostile and forbidden discrimination with each change of its investments by a corporation? ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ The courts are not authorized to substitute their views for those of the legislature. We can only consider the legislation that has been had, and determine whether or no its necessary operation results in an unjust discrimination between the parties charged with its burdens. It is enough that the state has secured a reasonably, fair distribution of burdens, and that no intentional discrimination has been made against nonresidents.
This court has frequently held that mere inequality in the results of a state tax law is not sufficient to invalidate it. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ The stock of the resident stockholder is assessed at its market value, less the proportionate value of all real estate held by the corporation upon which it has already paid a tax. As thus stated, there would appear to be a wrongful discrimination, and that the nonresident stockholder was subjected to a larger burden of taxation than the resident stockholder, and this, not as a result of the action of any mere ministerial officers in making assessments, but by reason of the direct command of the statute to include the real estate in the valuation in the one case and to exclude it in the other. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ You cannot put one resident against one nonresident stockholder, and by a comparison of their different burdens determine the validity of the legislation, any more than you can place a stockholder resident in one municipality over against a stockholder resident in another municipality, and by comparison of their different burdens determine the validity of the tax law in respect to resident stockholders. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ How, then, can it be that a difference in the basis of assessment is such an unjust discrimination as necessarily vitiates the tax upon the nonresident? The resident stockholder does not pay the 15 mills to the state which is demanded of the nonresident, and the nonresident stockholder does not pay to any locality the sum, greater or less than 15 mills, which may be imposed by the authorities of that locality. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ Many of the taxable corporations own no real estate, and much of the real estate which belongs to corporations who have investments therein is located outside of the state. According to the returns made by this particular corporation, out of a holding in real estate amounting in value to $1,778,662.05, upon which it had paid taxes, that which was situated in Connecticut was valued at only $137,965.81. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ It may also be said that, apparently, equality would be more certainly secured by making the assessment in each case upon the market value of the stock, diminished by the value of the real estate upon which taxes have been paid. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ Railroads, banks, partnerships, manufacturing associations, telegraph companies, and each one of the numerous other agencies of business which the inventions of the age are constantly bringing into existence, require different machinery for the purposes of their taxation. ”

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Source: Wikisource

David Josiah Brewer, Travelers' Insurance Company v…

“ It does not seem possible to adjust, with unerring certainty, all the varying burdens which grow out of the fact that some of the stock of the various state corporations is held outside of the state and some within the state, and the latter in separate municipalities with different rates of taxation. ”

David Josiah Brewer

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Quotes from Travelers' Insurance Company v… (David Josiah Brewer)

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