Horace Gray

“ The statute, in terms, provides that 'no promissory note or other instrument in writing, which is the evidence of' the debt secured by the mortgage, 'shall be taxed for any purpose within this state'; but that the debt and mortgage 'shall, for the purposes of assessment and taxation, be deemed and treated as land or real property' in the county in which the land is situated, and be there taxed, not beyond their real cash value, to the person appearing of record to be the owner of the mortgage. ”

“ By the law of Oregon, indeed, as of some other states of the Union, a mortgage of real property does not convey the legal title to the mortgagee, but creates only a lien or incumbrance as security for the mortgage debt; and the right of possession, as well as the legal title, remains in the mortgagor, both before and after condition broken, until foreclosure. ”

“ A mortgage upon real property in this state, whether considered as a conveyance of the same, giving the creditor an interest in or right to the same, or merely a contract giving him a lien thereon for his debt and the power to enforce the payment thereof by the sale of the premises, is a contract affecting real property in the state, and dependent for its existence, maintenance, and enforcement upon the laws and tribunals thereof, and may be taxed here as any other interest in, right to, or power over land. ”

“ Personal property, as this court has declared again and again, may be taxed either at the domicile of its owner, or at the place where the property is situated, even if the owner is neither a citizen nor a resident of the state which imposes the tax. ”

“ The ground upon which the plaintiff seeks to maintain this suit is that the tax act of the state of Oregon of 1882, as applied to the mortgages, owned and held by the plaintiff in California, of lands in Oregon, is contrary to the fourteenth amendment of the c nstitution of the United States, as depriving the plaintiff of its property without due process of law, and denying to it the equal protection of the laws. ”

“ St. 172, 177, 178. It should be remembered that in the courts of the state of Pennsylvania, for want of a court of chancery, an equitable title was always held sufficient to sustain an action of ejectment. ”