UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

FIDELITY & DEPOSIT CO. V. UNITED STATES, 259 U. S. 296 (1922)

259 U. S. 296

U.S. Supreme Court

Fidelity & Deposit Co. v. United States, 259 U.S. 296 (1922)

Fidelity & Deposit Co. v. United States

No. 207

Argued April 21, 1922

Decided May 29, 1922

259 U.S. 296

Syllabus

1. In fixing special bankers' taxes under the Act of June 13, 1898, c. 448, § 2, 30 Stat. 448, the assessment is not confined to that part of a banker's capital which is used in making loans or directly in other banking transactions, but includes capital held or deposited as a reserve or invested in securities and which serves to give credit to the banking business, and even where such securities have been designated as assets of another kind of business and physically segregated as such, they still may represent capital employed in the banking business if they continue to give it credit. P. 259 U. S. 301. .

2. But where a corporation is lawfully engaged in several distinct lines of business, including banking, for each of which its capital supplies necessary credit, the whole of the common capital cannot be deemed capital of a single department; there should be an apportionment, and the extent to which the capital is used in banking is a question of fact. P. 259 U. S. 301.

3. In an action to recover taxes collected under this act, where the plaintiff corporation claimed that the business of its banking department was conducted without the use of its capital, but solely on its depositors' money, and the Court of Claims, though requested, made no specific finding on that subject, but other findings respecting the segregation of the plaintiff's several kinds of business, investments, accounting, etc., from which the extent, if any, to which the capital was used in banking could not be definitely ascertained, held that the case should be remanded for further findings. P. 259 U. S. 303. clubjuris

Page 259 U. S. 297

4. The limitation on actions in the Court of Claims on claims arising under the Refunding Act of July 27, 1912, is six years. P. 259 U. S. 303. Sage v. United States, 250 U. S. 33.

55 Ct.Clms. 535 remanded for further findings, etc.

Appeal from a judgment of the Court of Claims dismissing a petition for recovery of money paid as bankers' special taxes under the Spanish War Revenue Act of June 13, 1898.


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