Melville Fuller

“ If credits can ever have an actual situs other than the domicil of the owner, can ever be regarded as property within any other state, and as under obligation to contribute to its support in consideration of being under its protection, it must be so in this case.'
It was thus ruled that the tax list of personal property was prima facie evidence of the due levy of the taxes; that such taxes could be proved against decedents' estates ”

“ Persons are not permitted to avail themselves for their own benefit of the laws of a state in the conduct of business within its limits, and then to escape their due contribution to the public needs through action of this sort, whether taken for convenience or by design. ”

“ Personal property, as this court has declared again and again, may be taxed, either at the domicil 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 state statute required every person being a resident of the state to list his personal property, including moneys, credits, etc., for taxation and 'moneys and other personal property invested, loaned, or otherwise controlled by him as the agent or attorney or on account of any other person or persons ”

“ Accepting the views of the state court in relation to the state statutes and proceedings thereunder, and concluding that the Constitution of the United States did not operate to prohibit the exercise of the power to tax these investments, it follows that the circuit court did not err in sustaining the validity of the taxation. ”

“ It is insisted, however, that this is not so, because in 1885, which was after the presentation of the claim against the father's estate in the probate court, though before the decision by the supreme court, the notes then in the hands of the agents were delivered to Mrs. Bristol, and thereafter all new notes taken in the business were sent to her and kept by her in her home in New York. ”

“ In the course of the administration of the estate of Cyrus Jefferson, deceased, in the probate court of the county of Washington, Minnesota, a claim was presented in March, 1884, against the estate for unpaid taxes for the years 1882 and 1883, on credits secured by mortgages, amounting to about $122,000, and the claim was allowed. ”

“ Bristol v. Washington County
Argued: January 22, 1900. --- Decided: April 9, 1900
The judgment amounted in effect to the allowance of the claim payable in due course of administration out of assets of the estate within the jurisdiction of the probate court. This was so notwithstanding the domicil of the testatrix and of her executor was in the state of New York; that that was the place of principal administration; and that the person charged therewith was the same. Aspden v. Nixon, 4 How. 467, 11 L. ed. 1059; Johnson v. Powers, 139 U.S. 156, 159, 35 L. ed. 112, 113, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 525. ”