Edward Douglass White

“ If the partnership sells out its property, including its good will and its profit-earning power, which are part of its property under the constitutional definition of property, there is nothing left to the separate partners. ”

“ If the complaint was of an actual discrimination it was a part of the plaintiff's duty to prove it, and show that its shares had no value above that of the tangible property, and would not 'be taken in payment of a just debt due from a solvent debtor' at a larger sum. The most elementary rule of judicial proceedings is that a party, to make out his cause of action, must prove, not assume, the existence of all essential facts.
But I need not rest upon the omission of proof. There is no allegation of any discrimination based upon such difference of valuation. ”

“ And though we have repeatedly decided in this court that the statute of a state cannot control the mode of procedure in equity cases in Federal courts, nor deprive them of their separate equity jurisdiction, we have also held that, where a statute of a state created a new right or provided a new remedy, the Federal courts will enforce that right, either on the common-law or equity side of its docket, as the nature of the new right or new remedy requires. ”

“ Now, in California there is a perfectly adequate legal remedy for cases of this nature. Section 3819 of the Political Code provides that 'the owner of any property, . . . who may claim that the assessment is void in whole or in part, may pay the same to the tax collector under protest, which protest shall be in writing, and shall specify whether the whole assessment is claimed to be void, or, if a part only, what portion, and in either case the grounds upon which such claim is founded ”

“ And, in that behalf, your orator further shows that, in assessing and taxing the said shares of the capital stock of your orator, no deduction will, or can legally, be made from the valuation of said shares, or any of them, of debts unsecured by deed of trust, mortgage, or other lien on real or personal property due or owing by the stockholders of your orator, or by any of them, to bona fide residents of the state of California ”

“ The stockholders in every national banking association doing business in this state, and having its principal place of business located in this state, shall be assessed and taxed on the value of their shares of stock therein ”

“ And, except where the special circumstances which we have mentioned exist, the party of whom an illegal tax is collected has ordinarily ample remedy, either by action against the officer making the collection or the body to whom the tax is paid. ”