Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Myers

Citations

• 172 U.S. 589
• 19 S. Ct. 276
• 43 L. Ed. 564
• 1899 U.S. LEXIS 1399

Syllabus

<p>This bill was filed to enjoin the enforcement of a tax, imposed under the laws of Montana, upon lands granted by Congress by the act of July 2, 1864, c. 217, to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and acquired by the appellant on the reorganization of the company. There was a controversy as to the character of the lands taxed — whether mineral or non-mineral. The lands have never been patented or certified to the company; the company claimed that it had only a potential interest therein; and the relief sought was that the lands be adjudged not subject to such assessment and taxation until the issue of patents therefor by the United States. It was stipulated in the court below that the sole question desired to be submitted was, whether the lands described in the bill were subject to taxation under the laws of the United States and of the State of Montana. That court sustained the taxation. In this court the position of the company was stated by its counsel as follows : “ The question for decision is not whether the railway company has any interest in its grant, or in the lands in question, which may be subjected to some form of taxation; but whether the lands themselves are taxable: whether the present assessment which is on the lands themselves can be sustained. We may well concede that the taxing power is broad enough to reach in some form the interest of the railway company in its grant. That interest becomes confessedly a vested interest upon construction of the road. It then becomes property and may well be held subject to some form of taxation. But here the legislature authorizes a tax upon, and the assessor makes an assessment upon, the land itself by specific description: the whole legal title to each parcel being specifically and separately assessed. When the plain fact is, that neither the assessor, or the railway company can place its hand on a single specific parcel and say whether it belongs to the company or to the United States.” Held, that, alth