294 Mass. 31 | Mass. | 1936
This case comes before us on a report following a trial before a judge without a jury. The complaint charged that the defendant, being a distributor of gasoline and not being licensed as required by G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 64A, made a sale of gasoline to Arsene Lavoie, such sale not being exempt under the Constitution of the United States. There was a finding of guilty. There was evidence tending to show that the defendant conducted a wholesale gasoline business in New Bedford in this Commonwealth under the trade name Seaboard Petroleum Company and made deliveries by a tank motor truck registered
The pertinent provisions of G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 64A are these: In § 1 are these definitions: “(c) ‘Distributor’ shall include any person who imports or causes to be imported fuel, as herein defined, for use, distribution or sale in the commonwealth; and also any person who produces, refines, manufactures or compounds fuel, as herein defined, within the commonwealth, (d) ‘Fuel’ shall include gasoline, ben-zol, or other products used in propelling motor vehicles using combustion type engines upon or over the highways of the commonwealth, (e) ‘ Purchaser ’ shall include, in addition to its usual meaning, the distributor in the case of a transfer of fuel by a distributor into a motor vehicle, or into a receptacle from which fuel is supplied by him to his own or other motor vehicles, (f) ‘Sale’ shall include, in addition to its usual meaning, the transfer of fuel by a distributor into a motor vehicle or into a receptacle from which fuel is supplied by him to his own or other motor vehicles.” By § 2 “The commissioner [of corporations and
The transportation of gasoline by the defendant in his own tank motor truck from Providence in the State of Rhode Island to Fall River in this Commonwealth constituted interstate commerce. Commonwealth v. Peoples Express Co. 201 Mass. 564, 573-574. Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. v. Commonwealth, 218 Mass. 558, 565-566. Commonwealth v. New England Transportation Co. 282 Mass. 429, 434. It is plain that a direct tax or an excise or license fee imposed by a State upon the lawful exercise of interstate commerce is invalid because contrary to art. 1, § 8, of the Constitution of the United States, whereby the power to regulate commerce between the States is vested in the Congress. Commonwealth v. O’Neil, 233 Mass. 535. Bowman v. Continental Oil Co. 256 U. S. 642. The statute in question imposes no tax upon transportation. It does not tax the property transported. It explicitly excepts interstate and foreign commerce from its operation. The tax laid by the statute is an excise upon the sale or use of gasoline for propelling motor vehicles using combustion type engines upon or over the highways of the Commonwealth. In substance and effect it is an excise, levied for the benefit of travel upon highways, upon gasoline consumed to propel motor vehicles on highways.
The case at bar is precisely covered by Monamotor Oil Co. v. Johnson, 292 U. S. 86. The statute there upheld as valid State legislation differed in no material particular from the one here assailed. It was there said concerning such an excise, at page 93: "There is no substance in the claim that the statutes impose a burden upon interstate commerce, contrary to the prohibition of Article I, § 8 of the Federal Constitution. The appellant insists that the tax is a direct tax on motor vehicle fuel imported. The court below concluded that the law laid an excise upon the use of fuel for the propulsion of vehicles on the highways of the state. The state officials have administered the tax on this theory. We think this the correct view. The levy is not on property but upon a specified use of property. . . .
The several requests for rulings by the defendant were denied rightly, but they need not be examined in detail. They are all inapplicable to the facts here disclosed.
Exceptions overruled.