Posados v. Warner, Barnes & Co., 279 U.S. 340 (1929)

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Posados v. Warner, Barnes & Co.

Nos. 251 and 252

Argued February 26, 1929
Decided April 22, 1929
279 U.S. 340

CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

Syllabus

1. The graduated tax rates on stock dividends imposed by Act 2833 of the Philippine Islands, as amended, apply only to individuals, and the objection that they infringe the rule of uniformity prescribed by the Organic Act is not available to a corporation which has been taxed only at the flat rate. P. 343.

2. Neither can this objection be maintained by an individual who fails to show the rate at which he was assessed or any facts to support the suggestion that the required uniformity was lacking. P. 346.

3. The provision of the Organic Act that no bill shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in the title, is not violated by including in a bill entitled as establishing an income tax, a tax on stock dividends, which is not strictly an income tax. P. 343.

4. A former decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands that stock dividends were not taxable as income under the Act here under consideration held not binding in this case as a rule of property. P. 345.

5. The doctrine of stare decisis does not apply with full force prior to decision in the court of last resort, e.g., not to a decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippine which was reviewable by this Court. P. 345.

6. The Philippine Legislature has power to lay a tax in respect of the advantage resulting to recipients from the allotment and & delivery of stock dividends. P. 345.

Reversed.

Certiorari, 278 U.S. 588, to review judgments of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands sustaining recoveries of money collected from the plaintiffs, respondents here, as taxes on stock dividends.