Eureka Pipe Line Co. v. Hallanan, 257 U.S. 265 (1921)

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Eureka Pipe Line Co. v. Hallanan

No. 255

Argued November 9, 1921
Decided December 12, 1921
257 U.S. 265

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS

OF THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Syllabus

1. A judgment of a state court which sustains a state tax on interstate commerce over the objection that the statute under which it was imposed is unconstitutional, is reviewable here by writ of error, and nonetheless so because the court below reached its result by construing the statute as applicable to intrastate commerce only, and by erroneously classifying as intrastate the commerce in question. P. 270.

2. A pipeline company received oil from producers in West Virginia, subject to their right thereafter to order equal quantities of like grade to be transported and delivered to local destinations, or to extra-state destinations under an interstate tariff, and subject to its duty under the state law to have in its pipes and connected reservoirs enough to satisfy such orders; it charged the producers a storage and gathering charge under the state law; the oil as received became subject to the company’s control, was commingled with other like oil, piped through the company’s gathering system to its trunkline pipes, and, except for relatively small quantities ordered diverted to local delivery, became part of a stream of oil passing through and out of the state. Held that a tax on the transportation, insofar as measured by the quantities produced in but moving out of West Virginia, was void under the Commerce Clause. P. 271.

7 W.Va. 396 reversed; writ of certiorari denied.

Error to a judgment sustaining a tax in a suit brought by the plaintiff in error to restrain its enforcement. See the next case, post.277.