Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/645

609 JURISDICTION TO TAX 609 purpose of being transmitted by check to the owner. So in Matter of Leopold,^^'' money of a non-resident was on deposit in a New York bank for the purpose of making a particular immediate in- vestment; the depositor died before the investment could be made. The deposit was held not to have a permanent situs in New York for the purpose of an inheritance tax. In the case of Blackstone v. Miller, ^^^ however, where a sum of money was de- posited in a New York bank by a resident of Illinois, and had so remained for more than a year, presumably awaiting investment, but with no particular investment in mind, the deposit was held to have a taxable situs in the state, and not to be merely in transitu. V. Taxation of Business Capital and Income A piece of property may consist of an aggregate mass made up of units which from to time vary. A typical example of such an aggregate is the stock in trade of a business which is constantly being diminished by sales and increased by purchases, yet at all times constituting a single stock and, roughly speaking, having a tolerably constant value. In spite of the fact that the units are constantly changing and that it may not be possible to fix a situs for any one unit in the mass, it is quite possible that the entire mass regarded as an entity should be assigned to a situs. Upon this ground it has been held that a merchant's stock in trade is taxable at its assessed value in the place where the business is being carried on, though the owner may be a nonresident,^"^ because it is "permanently located" there. In the language of Boyd, J., "the articles are changing from day to day, but the stock, which represents the aggregate of the goods and chattels remains about the same.""" For the same reason accounts receivable for business carried on are taxable at the place of the business."* Thus where a fraternal organization carried on its business in Fulton, but its '" 35 N. Y. Misc. 369, 71 N. Y. Supp. 1032 (1901). "" 188 U. S. 189 (1903). "^ People V. Roberts, 171 U. S. 658 (1898); Shaw ». Hartford, 56 Conn. 351, 15 Atl. 742 (1888); Leonard v. New Bedford, 16 Gray (Mass.) 292 (i860); Hilliard v. Fells Ice Co., 200 Mass. 331, 86 N. E. 773 (1909); People a. Barker, 141 N. Y. 118, 36 N. E. 1073 (1894); People v. Roberts, 151 N. Y. 652, 46 N. E- li^ (1897). "0 Hopkins v. Baker, 78 Md. 363, 28 Atl. 284 (1894). " '" People V. Barker, 157 N. Y. 159, 51 N. E. 1043 (1898).