Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/521

 UNITED STATES V. VINSON. 507 �mortgages thereon, according to their priority ; (3) to the payment of the plaintiff's taxable costs and'expenses in this suit, and the remain- der upon the judgment in the case of the United States v. Griswold, aforesaid. �No proof having been made in the allegations of the bill concern- ing the defendant J. H. Alberts, the bill is dismissed as to him. . ���United States v. Vinson. IDUtriet Court, S. D. Michigan. May 16, 1881.) �1. Intebnal Revenue — Rbv. 8t. f 3244 — Dbamirs m Tobacco. �Bmployers who- buy tobacco and deal it out to their employes at cost, charging them with its cash cost when thus delivered, are subject to the special tax required to be paid, under section 3244 of the lievised Statutes, by those " whose business it is to sell or offer for sale manufactured tobacco." �An information was filed against Vinson, charging him with sell- ing and offering for sale manufactured tobacco without payment of the special tax required by law. Upon examination, defendant made the following statement of facts, which the district attorney accepted, and the question was submitted to the court whether, upon sueh state of facts, a jury would be authorized to retum a verdict of guilty. The statement was that the defendant had a lumber camp in Isabella county; that he had about a dozen men at work; that he bought tobacco and paid for it, and took it into his camp, and gave it out to his men as they wanted it, charging them with the amount of cash that the tobacco cost him when it was delivered to the men ; that he charged them with cash instead of tobacco, the amount of cash charged from time to time for tobacco being the value of the tobacco delivered. �Brown, D. J. That the payment of employes in tobacco, even at cost priee, is teehnically a sale, I have no doubt, since there is a pass- ing of property from a vendor to a vendee for a valuable considera- tion, which is all that is necessary to constitute a sale within the meaning of the law. If the consideration were money it would be strictly a sale; if the tobacco were credited on account of labor, it would be an exchange of tobacco for labor, but a sale so far as the legal consequences of the act in this connection are eoncerned. �Whether, however, a transaction of this kind is within the spirit of the act requiring the payment of a special tax by one "whose business ��� �