United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Bank of Redemption v. Boston, 125 U.S. 60 (1888)

Bank of Redemption v. Boston

No. 1324

Argued February 14, 1888

Decided March 19, 1888

125 U.S. 60

Syllabus

The question of exemption from taxation of deposits in savings banks, as affecting the rule for the state taxation of national bank shares, was very deliberately considered by this Court in Mercantile Bank v. New York, 121 U. S. 138, and the conclusion reached in that case was reaffirmed in Davenport Bank v. Davenport Board of Equalization, 123 U. S. 83, and it is impossible to distinguish this case from those cases.

The laws for the taxation of national banks in Massachusetts, Mass.Pub.Stats. c. 13, §§ 8, 9, 10, do not deny to the banks as taxpayers the equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and do not impose a disproportionate and unequal tax upon them in violation of the provisions of the Constitution of that state.

It is the manifest intent of Rev.Stat. § 5219 to permit the state in which a national bank is located to tax all the shares in its capital stock without regard to ownership, subject only to the limitations prescribed in that section, and in this case the law permits the taxation of the shares in the bank of the plaintiff in error which are owned by other national banks on the same footing with all other shares.

This was an action at law in contract to recover taxes alleged to have been illegally assessed. Judgment for defendant. Plaintiff sued out this suit of error. The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.

Page 125 U. S. 61