# Payne v. Richardson

> California Supreme Court · June 8, 1922 · 189 Cal. 103

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3303744

## Case

- **Full name:** JOHN BARTON PAYNE, as Director-General of Railroads, Etc., Appellant, v. FRIEND W. RICHARDSON, as State Treasurer, Etc., Respondent
- **Court:** California Supreme Court
- **Decided:** June 8, 1922
- **Citations:** 189 Cal. 103; 207 P. 547; 1922 Cal. LEXIS 308
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Shaw
- **Judges:** Shaw, Wilbur
- **Cited by:** 1 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3303744

## Opinion text

SHAW, C. J., Concurring.—I concur.
The agreement under which the United States took possession of the railroad system of the Southern Pacific Com
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pany provided that the Director-General should pay all taxes lawfully assessed by the state on the property taken, or on the right to operate as a carrier, or save said company harmless therefrom. Under the scheme of taxation provided in the constitution of California (art. XIII, sec. 14), the state imposes upon the railroad company annually a percentage tax upon the “gross receipts from operation” of its lines situated within this state. If the company had continued to operate the lines and the United States had transported thereon the same freight and passengers that were transported for the road for government purposes under the management of the Director-General during the year in controversy, the earnings from such transportation would have included the amount produced at the regular rates for such carriage. It is evident that the taxes should be computed on the same basis as if such operation had continued, and that it was not contemplated that the earnings from the transportation on government account should go free from the burden of taxation, as the plaintiff, in effect, demands.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3303744. Public record. Not legal advice.