Allied Stores of Ohio, Inc. v. Bowers, 358 U.S. 522 (1959)

Allied Stores of Ohio, Inc. v. Bowers

No. 10

Argued November 12, 1958
Decided February 24, 1959
358 U.S. 522

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

Syllabus

Appellant, an Ohio corporation owning and operating department stores in Ohio and maintaining there private warehouses where it stores stocks of merchandise to be sold in its stores, challenged in the Ohio courts the validity of an ad valorem state tax on the contents of its warehouses. It claimed that it was denied the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment because Ohio exempted from such taxation merchandise belonging to nonresidents "if held in a storage warehouse for storage only." The trial court sustained the tax. The State Supreme Court held that appellant lacked standing to raise this constitutional question and affirmed the judgment.

Held:

1. Appellant had standing to prosecute its constitutional claim. Pp. 525-526.

2. The exemption from taxation of merchandise belonging to a nonresident when "held in a storage warehouse for storage only" did not deny to appellant, a resident of the State, the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Wheeling Steel Corp. v. Glander, 337 U.S. 562, distinguished. Pp. 526-530.

166 Ohio St. 116,140 N. E. 2d 411, affirmed.