Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Backus

Citations

• 154 U.S. 421
• 14 S. Ct. 1114
• 38 L. Ed. 1031
• 1894 U.S. LEXIS 2240

Syllabus

<p>The act of the legislature of Indiana of March 6,1891, concerning taxation, is not obnoxious to the constitutional objections made to it, since the Supreme Court of that State has decided :</p> <p>(1) That the constitution of that State authorizes such a method of assessing railroad property, which decision is binding on this court; and</p> <p>(2) That the act gives the' railroad companies the right to be heard before final determination of the question, which construction is conclusive on this court; and, further, since</p> <p>(3) A tax law which grants to the taxpayer a right to be heard on the assessment of his property before final judgment provides a due process of law for determining the valuation, although it makes no provision for a rehearing.</p> <p>When a railroad runs into or through two or more States, its value, for taxation purposes, in each is fairly estimated by taking that part of the value of the entire road which is measured by the proportion of the length of the particular part in that State to that of the whole road.</p> <p>The judgment of a state board empowered to fix a valuation for taxation, cannot be set aside by the testimony of witnesses that the valuation was other than that fixed by the board, where there is no evidence of fraud or of gross error in the system on which the valuations were made.</p>