Joseph, Comptroller, et al. v. Carter & Weekes Stevedoring Co. (330 U.S. 422)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 10, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 330 U.S. 422 · 67 S. Ct. 815
- Decided
- March 10, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
- Constitutional ruling
- Local ordinance held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. These two writs of certiorari bring before this Court contentions in regard to the application to the respective respondents, Carter & Weekes Stevedoring Company and John T. Clark & Son, of New York City, of the general business tax laws covering, when both cases are considered, the years 1937 to 1941, inclusive. The character of the taxes in issue will appear from a section, set out below, of a local law imposing the tax for 1939 and 1940. The respective taxpayers are liable also for the general income and ad valorem taxes of the State and City of New York. Both respondents are corporations engaged in the business of general stevedoring. For these cases, the business of respondents may be considered as consisting only of taking freight from a convenient place on the pier or lighter wholly within the territorial limits of New York City and storing it properly for safety and for handling in or on the outgoing vessel alongside, or of similarly unloading a vessel on its arrival. The vessels moved in interstate or foreign commerce, without a call at any other port of New York. We do not find it necessary to consider separately interstate and foreign commerce. The Commerce Clause covers both. Through statutory proceedings unnecessary to particularize, the Comptroller of the City of New York determined that the respondents were…
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