United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. New Orleans, 205 U.S. 395 (1907)

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

of New York v. City of New Orleans

No. 199

Argued January 31, 1907

Decided April 8, 1907

205 U.S. 395

Syllabus

Neither the fiction that personal property follows the domicil of the owner nor the doctrine that credits evidenced by notes have the situs of the latter can be allowed to obscure the truth, and personal property may be taxed at its permanent abiding place although the domicil of the owner is elsewhere.

Where a nonresident enters into the business of loaning money within a state and employs a local agent to conduct the business, the state may tax the capital employed precisely as it taxes the capital of its own citizens in like situation, and may assess the credits arising out of the business, and the foreigner cannot escape taxation upon his capital by temporarily removing from the state the evidences of credits which, under such circumstances, have a taxable situs in the their origin. Loans made by a New York life insurance company on its own policies in Louisiana are taxable in that state although the notes may be temporarily sent to the home office.

115 La. 698 affirmed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

Page 205 U. S. 397