Planters' Insurance v. Tennessee Ex Rel. Memphis

Citations

• 161 U.S. 193
• 16 S. Ct. 466
• 40 L. Ed. 667
• 1896 U.S. LEXIS 2152

Syllabus

<p>In 1860 the legislature of Tennessee incorporated the Energetic Insurance Company of Nashville, with a proviso in the charter limiting its taxation to one quarter of one per cent on its capital stock. In 1870 a new constitution was adopted by the State, forbidding such limitation. In 1884 the surviving corporators of the Energetic Insurance Company, which had not then been organized, met and organized the company under that name. In 1885 the name of the company was changed by ' legislative act to Planters’ Eire and Marine Insurance Company, and it was authorized to remove its situs to Memphis, which it did, and increased its capital stock. Since that time it has regularly paid its taxes at the rate named in the act of 1860. In a suit to recover taxes at the regular tax rate, which was in excess of the statutory limitation.: Held, that the-organization of the corporation having been made subsequently to the adoption of the constitution of 1870, and of its coming into force, ' the Corporation was subject to the provisions of that instrument regulating taxation.</p>