Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Commonwealth, 280 U.S. 83 (1929)
U.S. Supreme Court
Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Commonwealth, 280 U.S. 83 (1929)
Safe Deposit & Trust Co. v. Commonwealth
No. 20
Argued October 24, 1929
Decided November 25, 1929
280 U.S. 83
APPEAL FROM THE SPECIAL COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
1. Cause held properly here on appeal; certiorari denied. P. 280 U. S. 89.
2. A statute of a state which undertakes to tax things wholly beyond her jurisdiction or control conflicts with the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 280 U. S. 92.
3. Mobilia sequuntur personam is a fiction intended for convenience, not controlling where justice does not demand it, and not to be applied if the result would be a patent and inescapable injustice through double taxation, or otherwise. Pp. 280 U. S. 92-93.
4. Intangibles, such as stocks and bonds, in the hands of the holder of the legal title, with definite taxable situs at that owner's residence not subject to be changed by the equitable owner, may not be taxed at the latter's domicile in another state. P. 280 U.S. 93.