Mahlon Pitney

“ The only other diversity we have noticed in the operation of the tax is that which may arise out of the act of 1913 entitling a purchaser who buys not for resale but for his own use or consumption, to a limitation of inspection fees to $1,200 per annum. No point is made of this, but a rather obvious ground of classification suggests itself, in that the purchaser for his own use of consumption has no opportunity to make a profit out of resale, as plaintiff and other dealers who pay the full inspection fees may do. ”

“ That with respect to such substances when they have passed out of interstate commerce and have come to rest within the state and become a part of the general mass of property or have become the subject of domestic commerce, the state may impose inspection fees substantially in excess of the cost of inspection, and thus make them a source of general revenue, is also free from doubt, other than any which may arise from its own Constitution. ”

“ The tax to describe it according to its essential nature, is an excise upon domestice sale or storage, designed to affect the use of the products, a tax imposed at the time of inspection, the inspector acting also as tax gatherer, inspection and tax payment required but once, and that, ordinarily, from the dealer at the time of the first domestic sale, or during storage preliminary to such sale. ”

“ The fact that no goods of the like kind are produced within the taxing state, and that necessarily all have come from other states, is not of itself sufficient to show a discrimination against interstate commerce. ”

“ The evidence strongly tends to show that it may be more convenient to plaintiff that inspection before unloading of tank cars, as heretofore practiced, be continued; and there is no legal objection to this, if done with plaintiff's free consent. Aside from this, the authority of defendants to tax the products or their storage or sale commences when they have come to rest; ordinarily when transferred from the tank car to the storage tank and added to plaintiff's stock in trade kept therein for local distribution and sale. ”

“ Neither commodity is produced in Georgia, and all plaintiff's supplies for that are brought from points in other states, principally by rail in tank cars owned by plaintiff, having a capacity of approximately 8,000 gallons each. Plaintiff has 34 local agencies or distributing stations at different points in the state, at which are stationary storage tanks for oil and gasoline respectively, pumps and other apparatus for transferring the products from tank car to storage tank, and either a railroad siding, or (in a few cases) a private track in proximity to the storage tanks. ”

“ The principal part of its products comes to the distributing stations consigned to plaintiff or its manager or agent. As a rule, and as a part of plaintiff's own system, as soon as one of the tank cars is started from the point of origin outside the state a request for inspection, together with a check for the inspection fees, is forwarded by plaintiff to the local inspector nearest the point of destination, notifying him that the shipment is en route, and re questing him to give it immediate attention upon arrival. ”

“ In the normal course of the business, as shown by this record, the tank cars are not only the vehicles but the original containers for interstate terstate transportation, as well with respect to products consigned to plaintiff's own stations as to deliveries made direct to other interstate consignees. ”

“ The officials in charge of enforcement of the system, here made defendants, are the commissioner of agriculture, a general inspector of oils, and numerous local inspectors, whose duties are set forth in the cited Code sections and in the Act of 1912. ”

“ Upon amended bill and answer, and affidavits pro and con, an application for interlocutory injunction was heard before three judges pursuant to section 266, Judicial Code, as amended March 4, 1913, 37 Stat. ”