Arkansas Southern Railway Co. v. Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Co.

Citations

• 218 U.S. 431
• 31 S. Ct. 56
• 54 L. Ed. 1097
• 1910 U.S. LEXIS 2038

Syllabus

<p>This court must satisfy itself whether or not the party claiming the benefit of a contract which it claims was impaired by subsequent legislation had acquired rights under the original contract and therefore has jurisdiction.</p> <p>This court follows the state court in determining the extent' of a special immunity from taxation granted by the constitution of the State.</p> <p>A subordinate body of the State, in the absence of the State distinctly limiting its control thereover, contracts'subject, and not paramount, to the power of the State.</p> <p>A State by authorizing a municipality to levy taxes in the future on taxable property within its jurisdiction does not thereby limit its own power to determine what property shall be taxable when the levy shall be made.</p> <p>Even if the vote by a parish acting under a state statute in Louisiana to aid a railroad company by an annual tax constituted a contract and the company became entitled to its benefit, a provision in a subsequently enacted constitution, exempting certain property then taxable from all taxation does not impair the obligation of the original contract and the special tax d'annot be imposed on the property so exempted.</p>