United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

New York ex Rel. Clyde v. Gilchrist, 262 U.S. 94 (1923)

New York ex Rel. Clyde v. Gilchrist

No. 318

Argued April 17, 1923

Decided April 30, 1923

262 U.S. 94

Syllabus

1. Upon error to a state court, when a statute is alleged to impair the obligation of a contract, this Court must decide for itself whether there was a contract and what it was. P. 262 U. S. 96.

Page 262 U. S. 95

2. But where the contract claimed is one of tax exemption, involving the taxing system of the state, this Court will be slow to depart from a judgment of the state courts denying it if no real oppression or manifest wrong result. P. 262 U. S. 97.

3. The New York Mortgage Recording Tax Law, Art. XI, § 251, in providing that payment of the taxes therein provided on recording of mortgages should exempt them and the debts and obligations thereby secured from other taxation, and Art. XV of the Tax Law, as amended by c. 802, N.Y.Laws, 1911, in providing that, upon payment on other secured debt of a tax of 1/2 of 1% of their face value, and certification by the Comptroller, they should be exempt from all taxation, with specified exception, were not intended to establish contracts with those paying such taxes exempting them from taxation of their income from such debts and mortgages. Pp. 262 U. S. 97, 262 U. S. 99.

197 App.Div. 913, 232 N.Y. 550, affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of New York (affirmed by the Court of Appeals) confirming, in a statutory proceeding, an assessment under the state income tax law.