Harlan F. Stone

“ Taxpayer, a Delaware corporation, was engaged during the period in question in the business of purchasing natural gas in Louisiana and transporting it through its pipeline to points in Tennessee where it delivered the gas into the pipelines of two distributing companies-Memphis Power & Light Co. and West Tennessee Power & Light Co.-which sold the gas to local consumers. Taxpayer sells some of its gas in other states, but in Tennessee it sells from 1 to 2% of its output to the West Tennessee Power & Light Co. and delivers 80% or more to the Memphis company. ”

“ It is not enough that an appellant could have launched his attack upon the validity of the statute itself as applied; if he has failed to do so we are without jurisdiction over the appeal. The Judicial Code was intended to restrict our obligatory appellate jurisdiction to a narrow class of cases, and to foreclose an appeal as of right whenever the prescribed conditions have not been rigorously fulfilled. ”

“ The question for decision is whether a tax laid pursuant to §§ 1316-1318 of the Tennessee Code of 1932 upon the Memphis Natural Gas Company's net income derived from sales of natural gas in Tennessee, during the years 1932 to 1935, violates the commerce clause, Const. U.S. art. ”