Ohio River & Western Railway Co. v. Dittey

Citations

• 232 U.S. 576
• 34 S. Ct. 372

Syllabus

<p>Where the Federal jurisdiction does not depend upon diversity of citizenship but on Federal questions presented by the record, it extends to the determination of all questions presented irrespective of the disposition made of the Federal questions.</p> <p>Where the statute specifically makes the tax a lien upon real estate and the bill alleges that enforcement of penalties would work irreparable injury, equity jurisdiction is properly invoked.</p> <p>The Federal court may examine the opinion of the state court as well as the syllabus to ascertain the scope of the decision, notwithstanding the state rules of practice require the syllabus to be prepared by the judge preparing the opinion and to be confined to the points of law arising from the facts that have been determined.</p> <p>The franchise of a railroad company is not necessarily to be regarded as valueless merely because its present earnings are not sufficient to pay more than high grade investments or even to pay operating expenses. State Railroad Tax Cases, 92 U. S. 575.</p> <p>A state statute imposing a tax on railroads is not unconstitutional as denying equal protection of the law. The classification rests upon a reasonable and sufficient basis of distinction.</p> <p>In the .absence of a construction by the state court to that effect, the Federal court should not, if it can avoid doing so, place such a construction upon a state statute as would render it unconstitutional.</p> <p>“Interstate,” as used in a state tax statute, can fairly be construed as including ,all commerce other than “intrastate” when the evident purpose is to tax only the earnings subject to state taxation.</p> <p>In a state statute imposing a tax on intrastate earnings, it is reasonable to suppose that the exclusion of interstate earnings from taxation extended to earnings from foreign commerce when another construction would render the statute unconstitutional.</p> <p>The reasonableness of an excise or privilege tax, unless some Fed