Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway v. Browning

This case is here to review a judgment of the Supreme Court of Tennessee sustaining an assessment of petitioner’s property, tangible and intangible, under that state’s ad valorem tax law. All Tennessee property is subject to such a tax; but there are two schemes of procedure for making assessments, one for public service corporations and one for other taxpayers. As to ordinary property the task of valuation rests upon officials of the various counties. For public service corporations the assessments must be made by the Railroad and Public Utilities Commission, which is commanded to ascertain…