Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/368

 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. Statement of the Cas 9 U.S. covery would be a total ls to plaintiff in error. That the law was construed by all the officers of the state government since its enactment in 1892 to only require the payment of the prin- cipal sum of the taxes. And that such officers have so con- strued the law and the subsequent act, known as the revenue law, which was enacted March 29, 1902, in such manner that no interest or penalties were exacted of plaintiff in error, or any other owner or proprietor of a bonded warehouse. It is also alleged that plaintiff in error was not the owner of said spirits, but that they were owned by non-residents of the State; that under the law the person who paid the taxes thereon was en- titled to a lien to secure the amount so paid, and would have been entitled to a lien for the payment of interest and penal- ties if any had been exacted, and to enforce the same pesession could have been taken, but relying upon the construction placed upon the law as aforesaid, and believing that all claims of the State had been fully satisfied, plaintiff in error permitted the owner thereof to withdraw the same and ship it out of the State of Kentucky without the payment of any interest or penalties; that such spirits have long since been consumed and the lien thereon lost. And i is alleged that some of the owners are insolvent and others dead, and hence any recovery against plaintiff in error will be a total loss to him. There are a number of argumentative allegations that the spirits while in the bonded warehouse were in the possession of the United States, and not therefore in the possession of plaintiff in error or within the jurisdiction of the State of Kentucky, or subject to taxation by that State or any of the municipalities, or subject to any process of the courts of the State. And it is further alleged or argued that if the law be construed, as the State in this action seeks to construe it, such law would be an "unwarranted interference with the scheme and plan of the United States Government, which has been in force for forty years," and would deprive plaintiff in error and all owners of distilled spirits "of the rights and privileges secured and guaranteed by-the Constitution of the United

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