Wiley Blount Rutledge

“ It cannot be said that New Jersey has given no opportunities, has afforded no protection, and has conferred no benefits upon Independent Warehouses, Inc., merely because in an ultimate sense there is a financial identification between Independent Warehouses and the Erie Railroad. ”

“ Nor is it material to any question we have to decide that the practical result of the valid taxing power given the municipality enabled it to make up the loss in revenue suffered when Coalberg was transformed to a public facility.
Constitutionally speaking, the tax is not invalid as being unreasonably large for the privilege conferred. [14] It is not shown that the exaction is unrelated to the value of the privilege conferred and the Court of Errors and Appeals found to the contrary. ”

“ It follows that the tax is not forbidden because it is part of a licensing measure. Even where it is undisputed that the commerce is exclusively interstate in nature, 'not the mere fact or form of licensing, but what the license stands for by way of regulation is important.' Robertson v. ”

“ That the storage of the coal is part of a transit privilege does not in itself sustain appellants' claim that the interstate movement had not stopped sufficiently for the state's taxing power to attach when the coal reached and was stored in Coalberg. ”

“ Under these arrangements purchasers from the Coal Company who ship coal from the mines designate the destination on the shipping papers. If they designate Coalberg, the coal is sent there on railroad cars. It is unloaded to the storage pile where it is kept until ordered out by the owner. It is then reloaded into railroad cars, and when it is reshipped there is a new billing to the new destination. Most of the coal, after it has been stored, goes to states other than New Jersey. Some, however, is marketed in New Jersey. ”

“ That reasons of economy and convenience or even of necessity arising from the absence or prohibitive cost of storage space at the immediate point of distribution might lead him thus to locate his storage operations, and thereby incur the necessity and expense of hauling the goods from storage to market, hardly could be held to make the interruption an incident of transit rather than one of his own business policy and interest. That he may secure the same advantages by using the storage facilities of others for like purposes, rather than his own, does not change the result. ”

“ The distributors using Coalberg's facilities forward their coal not only to the near-by metropolitan area of New York City and northern New Jersey, but also to the New England States.↑ The tariff provides: 'The period of time allowed for the storage privilege and protection of the through rate from point of origin to ultimate destination shall be two (2) years from the date of delivery at storage point, as shown on the inbound freight (expense) bill. The Erie Railroad reserves the right to require owners to remove their coal at the expiration of the two years period. ”

“ On arrival of the shipments at Coalberg the transportation charges on the movement from the mine to Coalberg are paid to the Erie freight agent at Coalberg. When the coal is moved again after storage, the remainder of the through tariff rate from the point of original shipment at the mine in Pennsylvania is paid. This arrangement is known as the transit privilege. ”

“ It is also significant that invariably the goods are fungibles, a fact pointing up the fictional basis of the intransit privilege. The goods which are sent initially into the interstate commerce stream are not the identical goods which finally arrive at the place of consumption. ”

“ Independent Warehouses did not apply for the license or pay the tax for 1943. Consequently that company and Thompson were convicted in the Magistrate's Court before appellee Scheele, the Recorder of the Township, for having violated the ordinance by conducting the storage operations at Coalberg without complying with its requirements. Each was fined $200. [10] The Coal Company and Erie were allowed to intervene when the case went before the New Jersey Supreme Court, because of their obvious interest in the outcome of the litigation. ”

“ Erie also undertakes to maintain an agent at Coalberg duly authorized on its behalf to issue warehouse receipts for coal placed in storage by shippers.
The Coal Company has discharged the operating function under its agreement with Erie by an arrangement also made in 1939 with Independent Warehouses, which is a New York corporation engaged in the warehousing business. The Coal Company leased Coalberg to Independent Warehouses for $1.00 a year and the latter undertook to operate the plant for a consideration which now amounts to approximately $500 a year. ”

“ Any person so convicted may, in the discretion of the Magistrate by whom he was convicted, in default of the payment of any fine be imprisoned in the County Jail or place of detention provided by the Township of Saddle River, for any term not exceeding ninety (90) days. ”