Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance v. Board of Assessors for Parish of Orleans

Citations

• 221 U.S. 346
• 31 S. Ct. 550
• 55 L. Ed. 762
• 1911 U.S. LEXIS 1738

Syllabus

<p>Credits on open account are incorporeal and have no actual situs, but they constitute property and as such are taxable by the power having jurisdiction.</p> <p>The maxim of mobilia sequuntur personam yields to. the fact of actual control; and jurisdiction to tax intangible credits exists in the sovereignty of the debtor’s domicile, such credits being of value to the creditor because of the power given by such sovereignty to enforce ■ the debt. Blackstone v. Millerj 188 U. S. 205. Such taxation does not deny due process of law. ,,</p> <p>The jurisdiction of the State of the domicile over the creditor’s person does not exclude the power of another State in which he transacts his business to tax credits there accruing to him from resident debtors, and thus, without denying due process of law, to enforce contribution to support the government under whose protection hiS affairs are conducted.</p> <p>Credits need not be evidenced in any particular manner in order to render them subject to taxation.</p> <p>Premiums due by residents to a non-resident insurance company and which have been extended, but for which no written obligations have -been given, are credits subject to taxation by the State where the debtor is domiciled; and so held that' the statute of Louisiana to that effect is not unconstitutional as denying due process of law.</p> <p>In a suit for cancellation of an entire assessment as unconstitutional the plaintiff cannot ask for a reduction of amoupt if there is a proceeding under the state statute for that purpose and which he has'not availed of. -</p> <p>122 Louisiana, 98, affirmed.</p>