United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

New York ex rel. Whitney v. Graves, 299 U.S. 366 (1937)

New York ex rel. Whitney v. Graves

No. 218

Argued December 18, 1936

Decided January 4, 1937

299 U.S. 366

Syllabus

1. An intangible property right may have a "business situs" in a State for tax purposes either because the right grows out of the actual transactions of a business there localized, or because its exercise is fixed there, exclusively or dominantly. P. 299 U. S. 371.

2. A nonresident of New York, owning a seat in the New York Stock Exchange, who, by its rules, is privileged personaily to buy and sell securities in the market it affords only by going upon the floor of the Exchange in New York, is taxable in New York upon the profits derived by him from the sale of a "right" in a new membership appurtenant to his old one, although he may have no office or abode in New York and may fill all the orders of his customers for purchase or sale of securities by sending the orders to New York for execution on the floor of the Exchange by fellow members. P. 299 U. S. 372.

271 N.Y. 594; 3 N.E. 2d 201; 271 N.Y. 618, 3 N.E. 2d 213, affirmed.

Page 299 U. S. 367

Appeal from the affirmance of a judgment, 246 App.Div. 652, 283 N.Y.S. 219, in a proceeding by certiorari, which sustained a tax assessed by the New York Tax Commission.

Page 299 U. S. 369