Arkansas Building and Loan Assn. v. Madden

Citations

• 175 U.S. 269
• 20 S. Ct. 119
• 44 L. Ed. 159
• 1899 U.S. LEXIS 1562

Syllabus

<p>The collection of taxes under the authority of a State will not be enjoined by a court of the United States on the sole ground that the tax is illegal; but it must appear that the .party taxed has no adequate remedy by the ordinary processes of the law, and that there are special circumstances bringing the case within some recognized head of equity jurisdiction.</p> <p>In Texas the law is established that when a person, by the compulsion of the color of legal process, or of seizure of his person or goods, pays money unlawfully demanded, he may recover it back.</p> <p>Inasmuch as the bill in this case contains nothing to indicate inability on the one hand to pay the franchise tax in question, or, on the other, to respond in judgment if it were found to have been illegally exacted, and sets up no special circumstances justifying the exercise of equity jurisdiction other than consequences which complainant can easily avert without loss or injury, the court holds that the bill cannot be sustained.</p>