In 1928 appellee made an assessment against the appellant under a law of New Jersey known as the Voorhees Franchise Tax Act. Appellant caused the assessment by writ of certiorari to be brought to the Supreme Court of the State, and there insisted that as construed the statute is repugnant to the commerce clause. That court held the law valid, sustained the tax, and dismissed the writ. (N. J. Sup.) 143 A. 841. And its judgment was affirmed in the Court of Errors and Appeals, 146 A. 915.
As stated in its title, the act is one 'for the taxation of all the property and franchises of persons, copartnerships, associations or corporations (hereinafter referred to as taxpayers) using or occupying public streets, highways, roads or other public places * * *' (hereinafter referred to as streets). Section 1 (P. L. 1900, p. 502, as amended by P. L. 1917, p. 43, § 2) provides that 'all the property, real and personal, and franchises of' taxpayers who have the right to use or occupy streets shall be valued, assessed and taxed as provided in the act. Section 2 (P. L. 1900, p. 502) directs that the respective assessors 'shall each year ascertain the value of such property located in, upon or under any public street, * * * in each taxing district, and the value of the property not so located; when so ascertained, all such property shall be assessed and taxed at local rates, as now provided by law. * * *' And section 3 (P. L. 1900, p. 502, as amended by P. L. 1918, p. 907, § 1) requires the valuation of all property located in streets to be reported by districts to county boards and by them to appellee.
Section 4 (as amended by P. L. 1927, p. 567, § 1) provides that all such taxpayers shall return each year to appellee a statement showing the gross receipts of their business in the state for the calendar year next preceding, and that 'the franchise tax of such person, copartnership, association or corporation for business so done in this State' shall be upon such proportion of gross receipts as the length of the line or mains in the streets bears to the length of the whole line or mains. Section 5 (P. L. 1900, p. 503, as amended by P. L. 1917, p. 44, § 4) prescribes the rate. It was 2 per cent. prior to the amendment of 1917, but that act increased it to 3 per cent. for 1918 to 4 per cent. for 1919 and to 5 per cent. for 1920 and each year thereafter.
Section 6, as amended by P. L. 1927, p. 569, § 2, requires appellee to apportion the franchise tax among the taxing districts on the basis of the locally assessed value of the taxpayer's property in the streets in each district to the total value of all its property so located. The amounts so apportioned are collected as are other taxes. Section 7 (P. L. 1900, p. 504) enacts that money paid to a tax district pursuant to contract shall be considered a payment on account of the franchise tax imposed by the act, and section 8 (P. L. 1900, p. 502, as amended by P. L. 1902, p. 476) declares that the franchise tax shall be in lieu of all other franchise taxes assessed against such taxpayers and their property.
Appellant is a corporation organized under the laws of New Jersey and has long carried on a telephone business there. All its lines and property are within that state. October 1, 1927, it succeeded to the property and business in that state of the New York Telephone Company. A supplementary act approved March 27, 1928, required that company's gross receipts in New Jersey in 1927 to be included for the calculation of the franchise tax assessed against appellant. P. L. 1928, p. 223. Each company furnished intrastate telephone service in New Jersey, and also had large receipts for transmission of messages, passing over its lines in that state and other companies' connecting lines, between places in New Jersey and places in other states and countries. The service so rendered in New Jersey in respect of such interstate and foreign commerce is for brevity called interstate business. Appellant's telephone plant in New Jersey included large amounts of real and personal property which was assessed and taxed locally. The average of the local rates in 1918 was 3.877 per cent. The record does not disclose the assessed value of appellant's property.