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Pierce v. United States, 232 U.S. 290 (1914)
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General SummaryThis case is from a collection containing the full text of over 16,000 Supreme Court cases from 1793 to the present. The body of Supreme Court decisions are, effectively, the final interpretation of the Constitution. Only an amendment to the Constitution can permanently overturn an interpretation and this has happened only four times in American history.
Pierce v. United States, 232 U.S. 290 (1914)
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the Court.
These two cases involve the liability of the plaintiff in error in No. 64 for a tax on the foreign-built yacht Yacona, which became due on the first of September, 1909. The complaint in every substantial particular was identical with that filed in the Billings case this day decided, and this is true also of the defenses set up in the answer, except that the answer in this case contained this distinct averment which was not in the Billings case:
That the said yacht Yacona was not in use by the defendant or by any other person at any time during the year next preceding the first day of September, 1909, but was out of commission in the State of New York, throughout the whole of such year.
The case was submitted on bill and answer, and the liability for the tax, which was upheld by the court below, was rested upon the construction as to potential use -- that is, a tax on the privilege of using -- which we decided in the Billings case to be unsound. In this case, as in that, the certificate is concerned with a writ of error prosecuted by the United States to the circuit court of appeals because of the rejection of a prayer for interest. Treating both the cases in this instance as one, as we did in the previous cases, and applying to this the construction which we have given the statute in those cases, it follows that the judgment below was wrong, and must be reversed, with direction to dismiss the complaint.
And it is so ordered.
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Chicago: White, "White, J., Lead Opinion," Pierce v. United States, 232 U.S. 290 (1914) in 232 U.S. 290 Original Sources, accessed October 12, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KU8QVCISLA7G64T.
MLA: White. "White, J., Lead Opinion." Pierce v. United States, 232 U.S. 290 (1914), in 232 U.S. 290, Original Sources. 12 Oct. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KU8QVCISLA7G64T.
Harvard: White, 'White, J., Lead Opinion' in Pierce v. United States, 232 U.S. 290 (1914). cited in 1914, 232 U.S. 290. Original Sources, retrieved 12 October 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KU8QVCISLA7G64T.
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