Stone v. Bank of Commerce

The bill in this case was filed in 1897 by the Bank of Commerce, a citizen and resident of the city of Louisville, in the state of Kentucky, for the purpose of obtaining an injunction restraining the defendants from assessing the complainant, and from collecting or attempting to collect any taxes based upon the assessment spoken of in the bill, and for a final decree establishing the contract right of the complainant to be taxed in the method prescribed by the act of May 17, 1886, known as the 'Hewitt Act,' the terms of which it alleged it had accepted. The bill sought to perpetually enjoin the defendants from assessing the franchise or property of the complainant in any other manner than under that act. The material provisions of the Hewitt act are set out in the opinion of the court, delivered by Mr. Justice White, in the case of Citizens' Sav. Bank of Owensboro v. City of Owensboro, 173 U.S. 636, 19 Sup. Ct. 530, 571.