Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Stone, Chairman, State Tax Commission (335 U.S. 80)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 21, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 335 U.S. 80 · 68 S. Ct. 1475
- Docket
- No. 94
- Argued
- December 8, 1947
- Decided
- June 21, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Douglas, Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Murphy
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Black, Justice Rutledge (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed announced the judgment of the Court and an opinion in which Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Murphy join. The Memphis Natural Gas Company is a Delaware corporation which owns and operates a pipe line for the transportation of natural gas. The line runs from the Monroe Gas Field in the State of Louisiana through the states of Arkansas and Mississippi to Memphis and other points in the State of Tennessee. Approximately 135 miles of the pipe line lie within Mississippi; at two points within that state there are compressing stations. It is stipulated that the Gas Company has never engaged in any intrastate commerce in Mississippi; that it has only one customer within the state, the Mississippi Power and Light Company, to which it sells gas from its interstate line at wholesale from several delivery points; that the Gas Company has never qualified under the laws of Mississippi to do intrastate business within that state; that it has no agent for the service of process and that it has no office within the state; and that its only employees and representatives in Mississippi are those necessary to maintain the pipe line and its auxiliary appurtenances. The Gas Company has paid all ad valorem taxes assessed against its property in Mississippi pursuant to the state law. In addition to the ad valorem taxes, Mississippi imposes a “franchise, or excise tax” upon all…
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