McHenry v. Alfore

Citations

• 168 U.S. 651
• 18 S. Ct. 242
• 42 L. Ed. 614
• 1898 U.S. LEXIS 1356

Syllabus

<p>The ruling in United States v. Union Pacific Sailroad, 168 TJ. S. 605, that each question certified to this court from a Circuit Court of Appeals “ had to be a distinct point or proposition of law, clearly stated, so that ' it could be distinctly answered without regard to the other issues of law in the case; to be a question of law only and not a question of fact, or of miked law and fact, and hence could not involve or imply a conclusion or judgment upon the weight or effect of testimony or facts adduced in the case, and could not embrace the whole case, even where its decision' turned upon matter of law only, and even though it was split up in the form of questions, ” is affirmed and followed; and, being applied to the questions certified in this case, makes it necessary for the court to decline to answer the first, the sécond and the sixth questions.'</p> <p>Chapter 99 of the Laws of the Territory of Dakota of 1883 provided for the taxation of the lands of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company granted to it by Congress, outside of its right of way and not used in its business, while owned by the company and not leased', through the payment of percentages on gross earnings as provided for therein; the plain meaning of that act being to render the railroad company and all its property, land grants as well as right of way, free from the payment of all taxes, excepting to the amount and in the manner described in the act.</p> <p>That legislation was not in conflict with the provision in the act'of March 2, 1861, c. 86, 12 Stat. 239, providing that no law “shall be passed impairing the rights of private property; nor shall any discrimination be made in tax.ing different kinds of property; but all property subject to taxation shall be in proportion to the value of the property taxed.”</p> <p>• It is not necessary to decide whether the act of 1883 conflicts with the Constitution in that it lays taxes upon earnings arising from transportation of persons and property