Holt v. Indiana Manufacturing Company

This suit was brought in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Indiana by the Indiana Manufacturing Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Indiana, against Sterling R. Holt and others, taxing officers of Marion county, Indiana, and of a township in said county, and some others, constituting the board of review of that county, all of whom were citizens of Indiana, to enjoin the collection of certain personal taxes for the years 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895, assessed upon the capital stock and tangible property of the company. The bill alleged that the larger part of the assessment made by the taxing authorities was for the supposed value of certain rights under letters patent from the United States owned by the company, and which the company insisted were not subject to taxation by the state authorities; that the capital stock, aside from the tangible property, represented solely the supposed value of the letters patent; and that the taxes in respect of the tangible property had been paid by the company. Complainant charged that the assessment was illegal, unconstitutional, and void, and averred that the suit was instituted 'to redress the deprivation, under color of a law of the state of Indiana, of a right secured by the laws of the United States, and, further, that it is a suit arising under the patent laws of the United States.' The circuit court entered a decree, in accordance with the prayer of the bill, perpetually enjoining the collection of the taxes claimed to be due in respect of the capital stock, in so far as the value thereof was derived from patent rights or letters patent owned by complainant. An appeal was taken to the circuit court of appeals for the seventh circuit, and dismissed by that court for want of jurisdiction. 46 U.S. App. 717, 80 Fed. Rep. 1, 25 C. C. A. 301.

The circuit court of appeals held that the suit was not one arising under the patent laws of the United States, and that, as the jurisdiction of the circuit court could rest only on the ground that the constitutional rights of complainant were infringed by the laws of the state of Indiana which were repugnant to and in contravention of the Constitution of the United States, an appeal would not lie to that court, and could only be taken directly to this court under § 5 of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891.

Messrs. William L. Taylor, Solicitor General John K. Richards, Merrill Moores, Cassius C. Hadley, William A. Ketcham, and Alfred R. Hovey for appellants.

Chester Bradford and Alonzo Greene Smith for appellee.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court: