Fargo v. Hart’s Empirical Analysis
193 U.S. 490 · 1904
Citation profile
32 federal appellate · 38 district · 72 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 240 later decisions (47 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 1994 · most notably Wilcox v. Consolidated Gas Co. (1909), Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes of Vt. (1980)
32 federal appellate · 38 district · 72 state decisions — followed in 23 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Reagan v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. · State Railroad Tax Cases Taylor Collector et al. v. Secor et al. · Pullman's Palace-Car Co v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania · Payne v. Hook
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 240 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'out of all appropriate proportion to the business transacted . . . in that State,' " see Moorman, supra , at 274, 98 S.Ct., at 2345, the assessment cannot stand. 52 As Mr. Justice Holmes wrote, with respect to an Indiana property tax on the unitary business conducted by an express company: 53 "It is obvious, however, that this notion of organic unity may be made a means of unlawfully taxing the privilege [of carrying on commerce among the States], or property outside the State, under the name of enhanced value or good will, if it is not closely confined to its true meaning. So long as it fairly may be assumed that the different parts of a line are about equal in value a division by mileage is justifiable. But it is recognized in the cases that if, for instance, a railroad company had terminals in one State equal in value to all the rest of the line through another, the latter State could not make use of the unity of the road to equalize the value of every mile. That would be taxing property outside of the State under a pretense.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““And when that property is part of a system and has its actual uses only in connection with other parts of the system, that fact may be considered by the state in taxing, even though the other parts of the system are outside of the state. The sleepers and rails of a railroad company, or the posts and wires of a telegraph company, are worth more than the prepared wood and the bars of steel or coils of wire, from their organic connection with other rails or wires and the rest of the apparatus of a working whole. .This being clear, it is held reasonable and constitutional to get the worth of such a line, in the absence of anything more special, by a mileage proportion.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““The general principles■ to be applied are settled. A state cannot tax the privilege of carrying on commerce among the states. Neither can it tax property outside of its jurisdiction belonging to persons domiciled elsewhere. On the other hand, it can tax property permanently within its jurisdiction, although belonging to persons domiciled elsewhere, and used in commerce among the states. And when that property is part of a system and has its actual uses only in connection with other parts of the system, that fact may be considered by the ■state in taxing, even though the other parts of the. system are outside of the state.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.