U.S. Supreme Court LEE v. BICKELL, 292 U.S. 415 (1934)

[Page 292 U.S. 415, 426]

Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Nelson Mfg. Co., February 5, 1934, , 54 S.Ct. 392. There should be an appropriate opportunity in such circumstances to terminate or modify the restraints of the decree. There should also be an opportunity to renew the litigation in respect of the issue of constitutional validity, now held to be irrelevant. The reservations proper to that end wi l follow the practice indicated in Glenn v. Field Packing Co., 290 U.S. 177, 54 S.Ct. 138, and Wald Transfer & Storage Co. v. Smith, 290 U.S. 602, 54 S.Ct. 227, 78 L.Ed . --.

In conformity with those decisions, the decree will be modified by striking therefrom any conclusion of law or other adjudication as to the validity of the Documentary Stamp Tax Act of Florida under the Constitution of the United States, and by adding a provision, that the parties to the suit or any of them may apply at any time to the court below, by bill or otherwise, as they may be advised, for a further order or decree, in case it shall appear that the statute has been then construed by the highest court of Florida as applicable to the transactions in controversy here. With this modification the decree will be affirmed.

It is so ordered. Footnotes

Footnote 1 'On all sales, agreements to sell, or memoranda of sales or deliveries of, transfers of legal title to shares, or certificates of stock or profits or interest in property or accumulations in any corporation, or to rights to subscribe for or to receive such shares or certificates, whether made upon or shown by the books of the corporation, or by any assignment in blank, or by any delivery, or by any paper or agreement or memorandum or other evidence of transfer or sale, whether entitling the holder in any manner to the benefit of such stock interests, rights, or not, on each $100.00 of face value or fraction thereof 10›; and where such shares are without par or face value, the tax shall be 10› on the transfer or sale or agreement to sell on each share: Provided, that in case of sale, where evidence of transfer is shown only by the books of the corporation, the stamps shall be placed upon such books of the corporation; and where the change of ownership is by transfer of the certificate, the stamps shall be placed upon the certificates; and in case of an agreement to sell or where the transfer is made by delivery of the certificate assigned in blank, there shall be made and delivered by the seller to the buyer a bill or memorandum of such sale, to which the stamp shall be affixed; and every bill or memorandum of sale or agreement to sell before mentioned, shall show the date thereof, the name of the seller, the amount of the sale, and the matter or things to which it refers.'