LOCOMOBILE COMPANY OF AMERICA v. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

LOCOMOBILE COMPANY OF AMERICA v. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. ERROR TO THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OP THE STATE OP MASSACHUSETTS. No. 734. Argued October 19, 1917. Decided March 4, 1918. An excise tax of a designated per cent, of entire authorized capital, imposed on a foreign corporation for the privilege of doing local business in Massachusetts, held, void, upon the authority of International Paper Co. v. Massachusetts, ante, 135, and cases there cited.. 228 Massachusetts, 117, reversed. The case is stated in the opinion. Mr. Charles A. Snow, with whom Mr. Frank T. Benner and Mr. William P. Everts were on the brief, for plaintiff in error. Mr. William Harold Hitchcock, Assistant Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts, with whom Mr. Henry C. Atbwill, Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts, was on the brief, for defendant in error. [MAJORITY — Mr. Justice Van Devanter] Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court. An excise tax of $1,300 imposed on a West Virginia corporation for doing a local business in Massachusetts during the year 1915 is here in question. The state court sustained it. 228 Massachusetts, 117. The corporation is engaged in manufacturing in Connecticut and sells its manufactured articles extensively in interstate commerce. It does both an interstate and a local business in Massachusetts. Each is of considerable volume, but the interstate is much the larger, although this is not material. The tax is of a designated per cent, of the entire authorized capital, and was imposed after the maximum limit named in St. 1909, c. 490, Part III, § 56, was removed by St. 1914, c. 724, § 1. As thus changed the statute is in its essence and practical operation indistinguishable from those adjudged invalid in Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 1; Pullman Company v. Kansas, 216 U. S. 56; Ludwig v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 216 U. S. 146, and Looney v. Crane Company, 245 U. S. 178. This we have just decided in International Paper Co. v. Massachusetts, arde, 135. Judgment reversed.