Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/386

370 personal property which has a visible and tangible existence, has now taken a further step forward, and in the second clause of the opinion above quoted asserts that "the same thing is true of public securities consisting of State bonds, and bonds of municipal bodies, and circulating notes of banking institutions"; namely, that their situs for assessment and taxation is wholly irrespective and apart from any whereabouts of the owner or his domicile, but is where the securities actually are. So much, then, is so clear that even the most obstinate of assessors under the present arbitrary system will find it difficult, in respect to the items specified, to interpret the law and rule of action otherwise. But it is to be observed that negotiable railroad bonds are not, in the opinion quoted, specifically mentioned.

That they, however, follow the same law as municipal and State bonds, and were intended by the court to be included in the same category, is, however, obvious, for the following reasons:

1. The subject-matter of the case and of the decision was a railroad bond.

2. The character of a railroad bond as a negotiable instrument is in all respects the same as a State or municipal bond.

3. The reason which undoubtedly led the court (as it must every unprejudiced reader who thinks upon the subject) to the conclusion that State, municipal, and railroad bonds and bank notes follow the same rule, in respect to their situs for taxation, as other personal property of acknowledged visible and tangible character is that the property of all such instruments runs with the instrument, wholly irrespective of the residence of the owner, and consequently, in respect to title, passes by delivery. By public securities, also, the court undoubtedly meant all negotiable securities which are payable to the public—that is, to bearer wherever he may be; or, in other words, a public security, from its very nature, is subject to no previous equities between the original parties creating or issuing it, and the sum agreed to be paid is a liquidated and adjusted sum which must be paid to the public—that is, the holder; and the situs of such property from necessity follows the instrument to the public, and can be nowhere else than where the instrument actually is. On the other hand, if the instrument was subject to equities, the property might be where the parties creating it or owning it resided. And if this position is not correct, dealings in all such securities or upon the stock exchange, or in open market would be impracticable; inasmuch as the purchaser would be obliged to institute an investigation as to whether the title for each specific bond vested in the vendor or some other person; and as there is no registration of the transfer of such property, as there is in the case of real estate, the