Eureka Pipe Line Co. v. Hallanan

Citations

• 257 U.S. 265
• 42 S. Ct. 101
• 66 L. Ed. 227
• 1921 U.S. LEXIS 1339

Syllabus

<p>1. A judgment of a state court which sustains a state tax on interstate commerce over the objection that the statute under which it was imposed is unconstitutional, is reviewable here by writ of error, and none the less so because the court below reached its result by construing the statute as applicable to intrastate commerce only and by erroneously classifying as intrastate the commerce in question. P. 270.</p> <p>2. A pipe line company received oil from producers in West Virginia, subject to their, right thereafter to order equal quantities of like grade to be transported and delivered to local destinations, or to extra-state destinations under an interstate- tariff, and subject to its duty under the state law to have in its pipes and connected reservoirs enough to satisfy such orders; it charged the producers a storage and gathering charge under the state law; the oil as received became subject to the company’s control, was commingled with other like oil, piped through the company’s gathering system to its trunk line pipes, and, except for rélatively small quantities ordered diverted to local delivery, became part of a stream of oil passing through and out of the State. Held, that a tax on the transportation, in so far as measured by the quantities produced in but moving out of West Virginia, was void under the Commerce Clause. P. 27Í.</p>