165 N.E.2d 648
Nos. 36240, 36241, 36242 and 36243Supreme Court of Ohio.
Decided March 9, 1960.
Taxation — Highway use tax — Section 5728.01 et seq., Revised Code — Reciprocity agreement with West Virginia, construed — “Fees” includes highway use tax.
APPEALS from the Board of Tax Appeals.
These four causes arose as the result of highway use tax assessments made against the appellees herein under the provisions of Section 5728.01 et seq., Revised Code. The appellees who are owners and lessees of commercial motor vehicles appealed from the final determinations of the Tax Commissioner to the Board of Tax Appeals. Counsel agreed that any assessments involved in the appeals, from periods after September 24, 1955, were proper and owed to the state by the taxpayers.
During the periods of the assessments involved herein, appellees were residents and citizens of West Virginia and were the owners, operators and lessees of motor trucks, tractors and trailers licensed in West Virginia and registered with the West Virginia Public Service Commission. The Carroll Trucking Company was a West Virginia corporation and a common carrier within the meaning of the reciprocity agreement of 1947 and was engaged in interstate commerce under authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
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On July 1, 1947, Ohio and West Virginia entered into a reciprocity agreement relative to motor vehicles and effective during the periods involved in these cases until September 24, 1955, when it was cancelled and superseded by a new agreement not in issue here.
The Board of Tax Appeals modified three of the final orders of the Tax Commissioner so far as they pertained to mileage traveled by appellees’ vehicles over Ohio highways prior to September 24, 1955, and reversed the fourth which applied only to mileage traveled before September 24, 1955.
Appeals from the decisions of the Board of Tax Appeals bring the causes to this court for review.
Messrs. Calland, Stouffer Asher, for appellees.
Mr. Mark McElroy, attorney general, and Mr. Joseph L. White, for appellant.
Per Curiam.
The issue presented is the construction and applicability of the 1947 reciprocity agreement. The Tax Commissioner, appellant herein, contends that it does not and was not intended to exempt the appellees from the payment of the highway use tax under Section 5728.01 et seq., Revised Code, for their operation of motor vehicles over Ohio highways. The appellees contend that they were not subject to such tax because of the 1947 reciprocity agreement.
The Ohio-West Virginia reciprocity agreement of 1947, involved herein, was before this court in the case of Geo F. Alger Co. v Bowers, Tax Commr., 164 Ohio St. 122, although not specifically referred to in the opinion. The issue here presented was therein presented and determined. (See, also, Crawford Transport Co., Inc., v. Bowers, Tax Commr., ante, 367.) Therefore, under the doctrine of stare decisis, the decisions of the Board of Tax Appeals are affirmed on authority of that case.
Decisions affirmed.
WEYGANDT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, TAFT, MATTHIAS, BELL and HERBERT, JJ., concur.
PECK, J., not participating.
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