Three national banks, located at Shreveport, La.,-the Commercial National, the First National, and the American National brought, in a district court of that state, separate suits against the Tax Commission and officials of Caddo parish, to annul the assessment of all taxes, other than upon real estate, which had been imposed upon their corporate property for the year 1930, under Louisiana Act No. 14 of 1917, Extra Sess., as amended by Act No. 116 of 1922 and Act No. 221 of 1928. The claim in each case was that the statute as applied is void, because other moneyed capital employed in the same locality in competition with the capital of the plaintiff is not taxed at all, or is taxed less heavily, in violation of both section 5219 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (12 USCA § 548) and the equality clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The three cases were by agreement consolidated for trial; and were heard upon the same evidence, which in abbreviated form occupies, with the exhibits, 617 pages of the printed record. In each case judgment was entered for the plaintiff; and in each the defendants took a separate appeal to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, which reversed the judgments of the trial court. 175 La. 119, 143 So. 23, 28. The plaintiffs appealed to this court; and the defendants moved to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the plaintiffs had embraced in a single appeal the separate judgments rendered in the three cases. Consideration of that motion was postponed to the argument on the merits. 53 S.Ct. 521, 77 L.Ed. --.
The argument for dismissal is that the cases had been consolidated below only for the purpose of trial; that since there was no true consolidation of the causes below, and a separate judgment was rendered in each, the separate causes cannot be brought for review to this court by a single appeal. Compare Brown v. Spofford, 95 U.S. 474, 484, 485, 24 L.Ed. 508. The record discloses that a complete consolidation of the causes was effected. Not only were the three cases consolidated for trial in the District Court; they were taken to the Supreme Court of the state on a single transcript; were there docketed and argued as one case; and were there disposed of by a single written opinion. The record shows also that a joint petition for a rehearing was filed and likewise disposed of by a single opinion. The motion to dismiss the appeal is denied.
The claims of invalidity rest upon the following provisions of the Louisiana laws: The real estate of all banking corporations, state or national, is assessed to the corporation at its full value and the shares are assessed to the stockholders at their book value after deducting the value of the real estate. No other tax is laid on the property of a bank. Corporations other than those engaged in banking are taxed by assessing to them all of their property not exempt from taxation, in the same manner that the property of an individual is assessed to him. The shares of stock in such corporations are not taxed. The discrimination charged is that under these statutes all banking capital is taxed, whereas a large part of the moneyed capital employed in competition with the plaintiffs by nonbanking corporations escapes taxation, wholly or in part, by reason of the following provisions of the local law:
(a) Article 10, § 4, of the Louisiana Constitution, which exempts from taxation:
'Cash on hand or on deposit; loans or other obligations secured by mortgage on property located exclusively in the State of Louisiana, and the notes or other evidence thereof; loans by life insurance companies to policyholders, secured solely by their policies; loans by homestead associations to their members, secured solely by stock of such associations; debts due for merchandise or other articles of commerce or for services; obligations of the State or its political subdivisions; household property to the value of one thousand dollars; the legal reserve of life insurance companies organized under the laws of this State.'
(b) Act No. 24 of the Extra Session of 1918, which allows, in the assessment of credits, an offset for accounts payable, bills payable, and other liabilities of a similar character. Act No. 163 of 1924, which provides that bonds of other states and political subdivisions thereof, bonds of railways, railroads, and other public utilities, manufacturing and industrial corporations, and bonds secured by real estate, except such as are exempt from taxation by law, shall be assessed at 10 per cent. of their market value.