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ence save for the permission of Louisiana; they issued from the business transacted under her sanction within her borders; the sums were payable by persons domiciled within the State, and there the rights of the creditor were to be enforced. If locality, in the sense of subjection to sovereign power, could be attributed to these credits, they could be localized there. If, as property, they could be deemed to be taxable at all, they could be taxed there.

The decision in State Tax On Foreign-held Bonds, 15 Wall. 300, is not in point. There the tax was on the interest on bonds made and payable out of the State, and issued to and held by non-residents of the State. See Savings Society v. Multnomah County, 169 U. S. 428; New Orleans v. Stempel, supra, 319, 320; Blackstone v. Miller, supra, p. 206. Nor was the question determined in Murray v. Charleston, 96 U. S. 432, where a city attempted to tax its corporate stock, or public debt, owned by nonresidents, and the court limited its opinion to the holding "that no municipality of a State can, by its own ordinances, under the guise of taxation, relieve itself from performing to the letter all that it has expressly promised to its creditors" (p. 448).

In Kirtland v. Hotchkiss, 100 U. S. 491, it was held that the Federal Constitution does not prohibit a State from taxing her own citizens upon bonds belonging to them, although they were made by debtors resident in other States and secured by mortgage on real estate there situated. The sole inquiry was with respect to the validity of the statute of Connecticut where the creditor was domiciled. As the court said in New Orleans v. Stempel, supra (p. 321), in referring to the Kirtland Case, "It was assumed that the situs of such intangible property as a debt evidenced by bond was at the domicile of the owner. There was no legislation attempting to set aside that ordinary rule in respect to the matter of situs. On the contrary, the legislature of the State of Connecticut,

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from which the case came, plainly reaffirmed the rule, and the court in its opinion summed up the case in these words (p. 499): 'Whether the State of Connecticut shall measure the contribution which persons resident within its jurisdiction shall make by way of taxes, in return for the protection it affords them, by the value of the credits, choses in action, bonds or stocks which they may own (other than such as are exempted or protected from taxation under the Constitution and laws of the United States) is a matter which concerns only the people of that State, with which the Federal Government cannot rightfully interfere.' "" See also Kidd v. Alabama, 188 U. S. 730.

But, as we have seen, the jurisdiction of the State of his domicile, over the creditor's person, does not exclude the power of another State in which he transacts his business, to lay a tax upon the credits there accruing to him against resident debtors and thus to enforce contribution for the support of the government under whose protection his affairs are conducted. And that the jurisdiction of the latter State rests upon considerations which are more fundamental than that notes have been given, or that the credits are evidenced in any particular manner, was clearly brought out in the concluding statement of the opinion in the case of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, supra. There the court said: "Moreover, neither the fiction that personal property follows the domicile of its owner, nor the doctrine that credits evidenced by bonds or notes may have the situs of the latter, can be allowed to obscure the truth. Blackstone v. Miller, 188 U. S. 189. We are not dealing here merely with a single credit or a series of separate credits, but with a business. The insurance company chose to enter into the business of lending money within the State of Louisiana, and employed a local agent to conduct that business. It was conducted under the laws of the State. The State undertook to tax the capital employed in the business

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precisely as it taxed the capital of its own citizens in like situation. For the purpose of arriving at the amount of capital actually employed, it caused the credits arising out of the business to be assessed. We think the State had the power to do this, and that the foreigner doing business cannot escape taxation upon his capital by removing temporarily from the State evidences of credits in the form of notes. Under such circumstances, they have a taxable situs in the State of their origin." Equally, then, had the State the power to tax the premium accounts here involved. They were not withdrawn from its constitutional authority, either by reason of the fact that they were payable in consideration of insurance, instead of loans or goods sold, or by the circumstance that the credits were not evidenced by written instruments. They were none the less enforceable credits arising in the local business.

It is also urged that the assessment was excessive. This question was not suitably presented in the state court, for the suit was brought for the cancellation of the entire assessment upon the ground that, as a whole, it was without warrant of law, or if within the statute was beyond the power of the legislature to authorize. It is said that so far as the assessment was in excess of the actual credits it was a nullity, as one of property not in existence. The subject of the assessment, however, was a class of credits which was within the taxing power and the question is one of amount. Proper opportunity was afforded for its correction if it was too great; and if the plaintiff in error had seasonably sought a reduction, availing itself of the remedy that was open to it under the state law, it could have obtained appropriate relief. Orient Insurance Company v. Board of Assessors, 124 Louisiana, 872. In no aspect of the case, can it be said that there was want of due process of law.

The judgment is

Affirmed.

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ORIENT INSURANCE COMPANY v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS FOR THE PARISH OF ORLEANS.

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF

LOUISIANA.

No. 397. Argued April 18, 19, 1911.-Decided May 15, 1911.

Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Co. v. Assessors, ante, p. 346, followed and applied as to right of State to tax insurance premiums due and extended by residents to non-resident companies although such premiums were due from local agents and not from policy holders.

Quare whether any Federal question was raised on this record as to excessive valuation of taxable credits; but the assessments not being nullities, plaintiffs in error have not been deprived of their property without due process of law.

A State has power to fix a reasonable time within which actions for reduction of assessments must be taken. Kentucky Union Co. v. Kentucky, 219 U. S. 156.

· Where a state statute prescribes a method for review and reduction of excessive valuation for taxes the remedy must be availed of within the prescribed period; and one not availing thereof in time cannot attack the assessment as depriving him of property without due process of law.

124 Louisiana, 872, affirmed.

THE facts, which involve the constitutionality and validity of tax assessments on a foreign insurance company in Louisiana, are stated in the opinion.

Mr. Monte M. Lemann and Mr. Alexander C. King, with whom Mr. Harry H. Hall, Mr. J. Blanc Monroe were on the brief, for plaintiff in error.

Mr. George H. Terriberry, Mr. H. Garland Dupré and Mr. Harry P. Sneed, for defendants in error.

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MR. JUSTICE HUGHES delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a writ of error to review a judgment in a consolidated suit brought by a number of foreign insurance corporations, doing business in Louisiana, to cancel assessments made by the Board of Assessors for the Parish of Orleans for the years 1906, 1907 and 1908, and in the alternative for their reduction as excessive.

The assessments, so far as they are in question here, were for premiums due on open account. In the course of the suit, a stipulation was made setting forth the true amount of these premiums. By the judgment of the Supreme Court of the State, the assessments for the year 1908 were reduced to the amount shown by the stipulation, but those for the years 1906 and 1907 were sustained on the ground that the suit for reduction had not been brought within the time prescribed by law. 124 Louisiana, 872.

With respect to the taxability of the premium accounts owing by Louisiana debtors, the question is the same as that presented in the case of Liverpool & London & Globe Insurance Company v. Board of Assessors for the Parish of Orleans, decided this day, ante, p. 346.

But it is said, upon the testimony in this record, that the debts were not due to the corporations by the policy holders, but by their Louisiana agents; that the premiums were charged to the agents, and that the corporations themselves gave no credit to the policy holders. In their petition in the state court the plaintiffs alleged that the only credits of any kind for money due to them were "uncollected premiums, due, under open account." account." They also set forth that, protesting against the legality of the tax, they had made reports under the statute showing the "uncollected premiums" for the years in question. And in their stipulation "the actual amounts of outstanding premiums" were stated. If, however, it can be said that

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