United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Cudahy Packing Co. v. Hinkle, 278 U.S. 460 (1929)

Cudahy Packing Co. v. Hinkle

No. 278

Argued January 7, 1929

Decided February 18, 1929

278 U.S. 460

Syllabus

l. State taxation of a foreign corporation admitted to do business in a state, in the form of a filing fee and a license tax, both reckoned upon its authorized capital stock, held a burden on interstate commerce and an attempt to reach property beyond the jurisdiction of the state contrary to the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, in a case where the property of the corporation within the state and the part of its business there transacted (less than half of it intrastate) were but small fractions, respectively, of its entire property and of its business transacted in other parts of the Union and abroad, and where the amount of capital stock authorized was much more than the amount of the stock issued and the value of the total assets. The laws imposing the taxes fixed maximum limits of $3,000.00 each, and the taxes actually demanded were $545.00 and $580.00, respectively. P. 278 U. S. 465.

2. A state tax that really burdens the interstate commerce of a foreign corporation and reaches property beyond the state cannot be sustained upon the ground that it is relatively small. P. 278 U. S. 466.

24 F.2d 124 reversed.

Page 278 U. S. 461

Appeal from a decree of a district court of three judges refusing an interlocutory injunction and dismissing the bill in a suit to enjoin state officials from proceeding to enforce penalties against the plaintiff foreign corporation for its failure to pay filing fees and license taxes prescribed by the state law.

Page 278 U. S. 462