Edwd. S. Isham and John S. Runnells, for appellant.
L. B. Kellogg and S. B. Bradford, for appellees.
GRAY, J.
This was a bill in equity by Pullman's Palace-Car Company, a corporation of Illinois, and having its place of business and its principal office in that state, against the treasurers of fifty counties in Kansas, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, and eight other railroad companies, corporations of Kansas, the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, a corporation of Missouri, and the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 'a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the United States of America, and a resident and citizen of the state of Nebraska,' to restrain the collection of a tax assessed in 1885 and 1886, by the board of railroad assessors of the state of Kansas, to the said railroad corporations, upon sleeping-cars, dining-room cars, and parlor-cars, owned by the plaintiff, and by it let to those corporations, and employed exclusively in interstate commerce; and apportioned among the counties aforesaid according to the mileage of the railroads in each county; and levied accordingly in those counties; and all which taxes were assessed, apportioned, and levied under the Compiled Laws of Kansas of 1885, c. 107, art. 7, the material parts of which are copied in the margin. A demurrer filed by the county treasurers was sustained, and a final decree entered dismissing the bill, and the plaintiff appealed to this court. This case presents substantially the same questions as the case of Palace-Car Co. v. Pennsylvania, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 876, argued with it, and just decided, and is disposed of by the opinion in that case. Decree affirmed.
FIELD, BRADLEY, and HARLAN, JJ., dissented, for the reasons stated in their opinion in Palace-Car Co. v. Pennsylvania, supra. BROWN, J., not having been a member of the court when this case was argued, took no part in its decision.
Notes
Sec. 27. The board, when properly organized as herein provided for, shall proceed to ascertain all the personal property of any railroad
company owning, operating, or constructing a railway in this state, which, for the purposes of assessment and taxation, shall be held to include the track, road-bed, right of way, water and fuel stations, buildings and land on which they are situated, adjacent to or connected with the right of way, machinery, rolling stock, telegraph lines, and all instruments connected therewith, material on hand, and supplies provided for operating and carrying on the business of such railroad, together with the moneys, eredits, and all other property of such railway company used or held for the purpose of operating its railroad by such railway company, and appraise and assess such property at its actual value in money.
Sec. 28. Every person, company, or corporation owning, operating, or constructing a railroad in this state shall return sworn lists or schedules of the taxable property of such railroad company or corporation, as hereinafter provided. Such property shall be listed with reference to the amount, kind, and value on the first day of March in the year in which it is listed.
Sec. 29. On or before the twentieth day of March, eighteen hundrd a nd seventy-six, and at the same time in each year thereafter, the person, company, or corporation owning, operating, or constructing any railroad in this state shall, by its president, secretary, or principal accounting officer, return to the anditor of state a sworn statement or schedule, as follows: * * * Fifth. A full list of the rolling stock belonging to or operated by the person, company, or corporation, which shall distinctly set forth the number class, and value of all locomotives, passenger-cars, sleeping-cars, dining-cars, express-cars, mail-cars, baggage-cars, horse-cars, cattle-cars, coal-cars, platform-cars, wrecking-cars, pay-cars, and all other kind of cars owned or leased by said company.
Sec. 30. All sleeping, dining, palace, or other cars that make regular trips over any railroad in this state, and not owned by such railroad company, shall be listed by the manager, agent, or conductor, or other person having such cars in charge, and return made to state auditor, the same as is required of railroad companies, and the company operating or using said cars shall be held liable for the taxes due thereon. * *
*Sec. 33. The board of railroad assessors, after having valued and assessed all the railroad property in this state in accordance with the provisions of this article, shall, through the auditor of state, make returns to the county clerks of each and every county in which any portion of said railroad property, as designated in this article, may be located.