Union Tank Line Co. v. Richardson

LAWLOR, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the Union Tank Line Company, a corporation, in an action brought to recover from the defendant, Friend W. Richardson, as treasurer of the state of California, taxes paid under protest.

There is no dispute as to the facts. The plaintiff is a New Jersey corporation, having its principal place of business in the state of New York. It was doing and was qualified to do business in this state, where it had a managing agent. The company was engaged in the acquiring by purchase or otherwise of oil tank-cars and the leasing thereof to shippers throughout the United States. All contracts between the plaintiff and shippers were entered into and executed in New York at the plaintiff’s office, where, it appears, all payments under such contracts were made to the company. Plaintiff maintained and operated repair-shops for the repair of its cars in the city of Richmond, county of Contra Costa, and in the town of El Segundo, Los Angeles County. At some time prior to March 1, 1913, plaintiff entered .into a contract with the Standard Oil Company of California by which the former undertook to lease to the latter, for its use and service in the transportation of petroleum oil and other oil products within and outside of the state, such ears as might be required. In this agreement it was provided that the Oil Company should repair plaintiff’s cars at prices which should be mutually agreed upon from time to time; that the Oil Company should furnish the labor and should use materials specified by the plaintiff; that all materials should be inspected by the plaintiff’s agents; that the tracks of the Oil Company at Richmond and El Segundo should be considered “home tracks” for any part of the plaintiff’s equipment, and that the plaintiff should have free and reasonable use of those tracks; that the Oil Company should “perform, or assume the expense of, all switching

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within or about its plant where such switching is occasioned by the natural operation of the plant or by instructions of the Car Company”; “that the time any car shall be considered to be in the possession of the Oil Company shall be from the day the car is placed until it is unloaded, both inclusive, and that any ear prior to the time of its being placed, or ordered placed for loading, by the Oil Company, and after the time it is unloaded shall be subject” to the plaintiff’s orders and not to those of the Oil Company, “except that the Oil Company shall carry out the instructions of the Car Company with respect to the distribution of its empty cars”; and that plaintiff’s cars should not be sublet without the plaintiff’s consent. This contract was the only contract of lease into which the plaintiff entered with any person or corporation in California, and none of plaintiff’s cars other than those furnished to the Oil Company was operated over rail lines in this state. It is admitted that although the plaintiff, as already shown, reserved the right to direct the movements of its cars after unloading, that right was not exercised during the period in question. The rail carriers in the state which hauled plaintiff’s cars paid to the plaintiff three-fourths of one cent per mile per car, while the Oil Company paid a rental to the plaintiff and regular freight rates to the carriers. Plaintiff owns no railroad or rolling stock in this state other than the cars leased to the Oil Company. Plaintiff’s vice-president and treasurer testified that the provision in the contract above referred to regarding the use of the Oil Company’s “home tracks” was for the purpose of avoiding demurrage charges; that plaintiff did not allocate particular ears for the use of the Oil Company, and that, to his knowledge, no ears had been sublet by the Oil Company either with or without the plaintiff’s consent.