Commonwealth v. Banker Bros.

Citations

• 38 Pa. Super. 101
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 96

Syllabus

<p>Practice, C. P. — Case stated — Contract—Principal and agent.</p> <p>1. Where a case stated avers that one of the parties was an agent of a foreign corporation as shown by a copy of a contract annexed, the court may look into and construe the contract and find that the party named was in fact a purchaser of goods from the foreign corporation, and not its agent as averred in the case stated.</p> <p>Taxation — Mercantile tax — Interstate commerce — Purchase of automobile — ’Principal and agent.</p> <p>2. When goods are sent from one state to another for sale, or in consequence of a sale, they become part of its general property and amenable to its laws, provided that no discrimination be made against them as goods from another state, and that they be not taxed by reason of being from another state, but only taxed in the usual way as other goods are.</p> <p>3. If the mercantile tax imposed by the Act of May 2,1899, P. L. 184, be regarded as a tax upon property, it is one which the state has power to impose. If it be regarded as a tax upon a trade, or the business of vending merchandise, it is also a tax which the state may legally impose.</p> <p>4. A foreign corporation manufacturing automobiles entered into a contract with a Pennsylvania corporation doing business in this state, by which the foreign company agreed to sell automobiles to the Pennsylvania company at a certain list price, delivery to be made as soon after orders were received as practicable, payment to be made in cash. The Pennsylvania company agreed not to sell any other kind of automobiles within a designated territory, and not to sell the foreign company's automobiles outside of such territory. Payments were to be made either in advance, or by paying drafts with bills of lading attached. The contract could be terminated by either party upon ten days' notice. There was nothing in the agreement which authorized the Pennsylvania company to bind the foreign company by any engagement with a third party.