Firemens' Insurance Co. v. Mayor of Baltimore

Bartol, J., delivered the opinion of this Court: We concur in the opinion of the Superior Court in this case, and think the mandamus was properly ordered. The appellant is a joint stock corporation in the city of Baltimore, subject to the provisions of the 9*7th section, 81st Art. of the Code; and was bound, by the express terms of that section, to furnish to the Appeal Tax Court the list of stockholders, with their places of residence, and the amount of stock held by each, and having failed or refused to do so, the appropriate remedy to enforce a compliance with the obligation so imposed, was by the writ of mandamus. The learned Judge, in his opinion,- found in the record, decided that “the necessity of furnishing a list might be obviated by the corporation agreeing with the Appeal Tax Court to pay an ascertained amount of money as a tax upon the stock liable to city taxation, in lieu of an assessment upon the individual shares,” thus saving the city the necessity of resorting to the individual stockholders. ³¹⁰ Inasmuch, as no such, agreement was made in this case, it is not material to the decision of this appeal to express any judgment upon that proposition, the more especially as all doubts that may have before existed upon the construction of the Code in this particular, have been removed by the Act of 1864, ch. 391, which, in express words, authorizes such agreement to he made by joint stock corporations. Nevertheless, as this question has been argued and considered, we deem it proper to state that this Court fully concurs with the ruling of the Superior Court on this point also.

The proviso in the filthrsection is a little vague, only because of the use of the definite article, in referring to the agreement mentioned in the preceding (95th) section. But taking the whole section together, and construing it in connection with the preceding sections, it seems to be clear, that the meaning of the proviso is, to authorize corporations having joint stock to make such agreement, as by the 95th section, Savings Banks were allowed to make. Any other construction would render the proviso in the 91th section useless and unintelligible. For it is clear that the other provisions of the section apply only to joint stock corporations ; and the only object of the proviso is to provide an alternative whereby such corporations may be exempt from the duty of furnishing a list of stockholders.

This con-, struction is consistent with the words of the Act of 1841, ch. 277, section 10, of which section 91. is a codification. The whole Court agree, also, with the Judge of the Superior Court, in the opinion that the shares of stock are liable to be assessed at their cash value at the time of the assessment. In the argument of this appeal, several objections to these conclusions have been urged; some of which we shall briefly notice. It is contended that the appellant, being a corporation, having its “situs” or “habitat” in the city of Baltimore, is subject to be taxed, as an inhabitant of the city, upon its ³¹¹ aggregate capital stock, which, it is said,