This was a bill in equity, filed in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Oregon, by the Savings & Loan Society, a corporation and citizen of the state of California, against Multnomah county, a public corporation in the state of Oregon, and one Kelly, the sheriff and ex officio the tax collector of that county, and a citizen of that state, showing that in 1891 and 1892 various persons, all citizens of Oregon, severally made their promissory notes to secure the payment of various sums of money, with interest, to the plaintiff at its office in the city of San Francisco and state of California, amounting in all to the sum of $531,000, and, to further secure the same debts, executed to the plaintiff mortgages of divers parcels of land owned by them in Multnomah county; that the mortgages were duly recorded in the office of the recorder of conveyances of that county; that the notes and mortgages were immediately delivered to the plaintiff, and had ever since been without the state of Oregon, and in the possession of the plaintiff at San Francisco; that afterwards, in accordance with the statute of Oregon of October 26, 1882, taxes were imposed upon all the taxable property in Multnomah county, including the debts and mortgages aforesaid; that, the taxes upon these debts and mortgages not having been paid, a list thereof was placed in the hands of the sheriff, with a warrant directing him to collect the same as upon execution, and he advertised for sale all the debts and mortgages aforesaid; and that the statute was in violation of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United States, as depriving the plaintiff of its property without due process of law, and denying to it the equal protection of the laws. The bill prayed for an injunction against the sale, and for a decree declaring that the statute was contrary to the provisions of the constitution of the United States, and therefore of no effect, and that all the proceedings before set out were null and void, and for further relief.
The defendants demurred generally, and the court sustained the demurrer, and dismissed the bill. 60 Fed. 31. The plaintiff appealed to this court.
The ground upon which the plaintiff seeks to maintain this suit is that the tax act of the state of Oregon of 1882, as applied to the mortgages, owned and held by the plaintiff in California, of lands in Oregon, is contrary to the fourteenth amendment of the c nstitution of the United States, as depriving the plaintiff of its property without due process of law, and denying to it the equal protection of the laws.