Assessment of Railroad Property.

The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad Company, the Southern Railway Company, the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad Company, Raleigh and Augusta, Carolina Central, Seaboard and Roanoke, Roanoke and Tar River, Atlantic Coast Line of Virginia, Norfolk and Carolina Railroad, filed bills of complaint against the North Carolina Corporation Commission for the purpose of enjoining the enforcement and collection of taxes upon an alleged illegal increase in the valuations for assessment of their properties respectively, for the year 1899, aggregating about $10,000,000; the State, county, city and town taxes upon which will amount each year in the future to about $100,000.

The bills in the cases of Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, Southern Railway, and Raleigh and Gaston, are as follows:

-

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. — EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA. IN EQUITY.

ORIGINAL BILL.

THE WILMINGTON AND WELDON RAILROAD COMPANY.

vs.

THE NORTH CAROLINA CORPORATION COMMISSION, FRANKLIN MCNEIL, CHAIRMAN, S. L. ROGERS AND E. C. BEDDINGFIELD, MEMBERS, AND HENRY C. BROWN, CLERK, WILLIAM H. WORTH, TREASURER, AND HAL. W. AYER, PUBLIC AUDITOR.

To the Honorable the Judges of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of North Carolina:

The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad Company, a corporation created by and existing under the laws of the State of North Carolina, brings this its Bill of Complaint against the North Carolina Corporation Commission, and against Franklin McNeil, Chairman, S. L. Rogers and E. C. Beddingfield, constituting and composing the said North Carolina Corporation Commission, and Henry C. Brown, Clerk thereof, William H. Worth, Treasurer, and Hal. W. Ayer, Auditor of the State of North Carolina.

And thereupon your orator complains and alleges:

1. That your orator is a corporation duly created and existing under and by virtue of the laws of North Carolina, and that your orator is a citizen and resident of the State of North Carolina and of the Eastern District thereof.

2. That the defendants Franklin McNeil, S. L. Rogers and E. C. Beddingfield constitute the North Carolina Corporation Commission, the said Franklin McNeil being Chairman thereof, and Henry C. Brown is Clerk thereof, and their office and official place of business is in the city of Raleigh, in the said State of North Carolina, and in the Eastern District thereof. That the defendants, Franklin McNeil, E. C. Beddingfield, H. C. Brown, W. H. Worth and Hal. W. Ayer, are citizens and residents of the said Eastern District of North Carolina and the defendant, S. L. Rogers, is a citizen and resident of the State of North Carolina.

3. That on or about the 5th day of March, 1891, the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina passed an act entitled, "An Act to provide for the General Supervision of Railroads, Steamboat or Canal Companies, Express and Telegraph Companies doing business in the State of North Carolina," and being chapter 320 of the laws of North Carolina for the session of 1891. That thereafter the said act was amended or supplemented by acts of said General Assembly of North Carolina, ratified on the following dates: April 1, 1891, February 9, 1893, March 6, 1893, and February 14, 1893; to which said acts and amendments your orator begs leave to refer and by reference include herein with the same force and effect as though the same was here set forth at length.

4. That the amount involved in this suit is over two thousand dollars, exclusive of interest and costs and this suit is one arising under the Constitution of the United States.

5. That on the 6th day of March, 1899, the General Assembly of North Carolina professed to repeal the aforesaid Railroad Commission Act, being chapter 320 of the Laws of 1891, and all acts amendatory thereof, and on the 8th day of March, 1899, in section 42 of the act to provide for the assessment of property and the collection of taxes, commonly called the "Machinery Act," provided as follows: "The Commissioners elected from time to time under the authority of an Act to provide for the General Supervision of Railroads, Steamboat or Canal Companies, Express and Telegraph Companies, doing business in the State of North Carolina, shall constitute a Board of Appraisers and assessors for railroad, telegraph and steamboat and canal companies," and in subsequent sections of said act the method and details of said procedure are marked out with great particularity, reference being made always to the Commissioners abovementioned.

6. That on the 8th day of March, 1899, the said General Assembly passed an act entitled "An Act to raise Revenue," and by the 60th and 61st sections thereof it is provided:

"SEC. 60. That for the purpose of raising revenue and equalizing taxation, the Railroad Commission or any body succeeding to their powers, are hereby required and directed, as soon as practicable, and in time for the levy of 1899 to revise the assessments for taxation of the entire railroad property of the State, and in doing so they should take into consideration the nature of the franchise and gross earnings and the net income of each road."

"SEC. 61. That said assessors shall so increase the assessments, where such increase is justified, as will make each part and parcel of railroad property bear its fair proportion of the burden of taxation."

Your orator calls attention to the various sections of said act to raise revenue, being chapter 11 of the Laws of 1899, bearing upon the said Board of Railroad Commissioners as a Board of Assessment, and particularly to sections 37, 38, 39, 40. 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 and 47 of said act, and prays that the whole of said act may be taken as parts of this bill as if fully set out therein.

7. Your orator submits to the Court whether the Board of Railroad Commissioners is not preserved as a Board of Assessors, with the power of review and equalization committed to the North Carolina Corporation Commission and whether the said Corporation Commission have any original powers as an assessing board.

8. That by article 5, section 3, of the Constitution of North Carolina, it is provided: "Laws shall be passed taxing by a uniform rule all moneys, credits, investments in bonds, stocks, joint stock companies or otherwise, and also all real and personal property according to its true value in money. The General Assembly may also tax trades, professions, franchises, and incomes, provided that no income shall be taxed when the property from which the income is derived is taxed." And by article 7, section 9, of said Constitution it is also provided: “All taxes levied by any county, city, town or township, shall be uniform and ad valorem upon all property in the same, except property exempted by this Constitution.”

9. That the defendants composing the North Carolina Corporation Commission have undertaken to assess originally the value of all railroad property in North Carolira, and have assessed the value of the property of your orator in said State as follows:

Main line (161.40 miles) at $25,000 per mile.

Wilson and Fayetteville Branch (116.20 miles) at $25,000 per mile.

Tarboro Branch (11.38 miles) at $20,000 per mile.

Atlantic and Yadkin Railway Company (166.19 miles) at $8,250 per mile.
Albemarle and Raleigh (53.33 miles) at $5,000 per mile.

Scotland Neck Branch (85.82 miles) at $7,500 per mile.
Washington Branch (25.39 miles) at $5,000 per mile.

Wilmington, New Bern and Norfolk Branch (90.32 miles) at $5,000 per mile. This is the value of the right of way, roadbed and track. The other property of complairant, consisting of depots, section houses, water tanks, shops, lots, etc., and rolling stock and equipment is assessed in addition thereto.

10. That all the property in the State, other than railroad property, with few exceptions, is assessed by local assessment boards in each township with a power of equalization and revision lodged in the Board of County Commissioners of the respective counties. And there has grown up before these local County Boards an almost immemorial and well recognized custom to assess for taxation all property, other than railroad property, and especially farming lands, at less than its actual value, and, as your orator is informed and believes, said value for taxes is fixed at from fifty to sixty per cent of its actual value. The said property is systematically and designedly assessed at such under values by said local and county boards and such method generally prevails throughout the State.

11. That the property of your orator has been assessed by the defendants at