Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/430

 418, FSSDZSAIi BBPOBTBr.. �Wallace, D. J. The complainant moves for an injunction to restrain the defendant from ail proceedings to collect a tax assessed against varions stockholders of the complainant by the board of assessors of the city of Albany. The statute under which the assesstaent was made requireg every bank- ing association to retain so much of any dividend or divi- dends, belonging to stockholders, as shall be necessary to pay any taxes assessed in pursuance of the act. The complain- ant's bill alleges that its stockholders have been assessed, that none of them have paid the tax, eni that several of them, owning together about half of the entire capital stock of the bank, have demanded their dividends and directed the complainant not to pay therefrom the taxes assessed, and refuse to allow the coinplainant to retain their dividends for that purpose. �The first ground upon which the right to an injunction ia placed by the complainant is that the assessment contravenes section 5219, Eevised Statutes of the United States, which prohibits the taxation of shares in national banks at a greater rate than is assessed upon other moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of the state. The assessment ■was made under the provisions of chapter 596 of the Laws of New York of 1880, prescribing a system for the taxation of banks and moneyed capital invested in the business of bank- ing. By another act of the same year (chapter 542, Laws 1880) ail corporations except banks, life insurance compa- nies, and manufaoturing companies are taxable upon their dividends, when the dividends declared during the year amount to 6 per centum or more; or when there are no dividends, or the dividends are less than 6 per centum, then the tax is to be assessed upon a valuation of their capital stock, made by the comptroller of the state in a mode pre- scribed by the act. Section 8 of this act exempts the cap- ital stock and personal property of these corporations from other assessment or taxation. �It is claimed for the complainant that this latter act, respecting the taxation of corporations, subjects them to a moderate taxation, and exempts their stockholders from any ��� �