Hervey v. Southern Wooden Box, Inc.

George Rose Smith, Justice.

The question in this case is whether one of the appellees, CocaCola Bottling Company of Southeast Arkansas, must pay the Arkansas sales tax or use tax upon its purchases of certain paper cups and wooden cases that it uses in marketing soft drinks. The chancellor held, in two cases consolidated for trial, that neither the purchase of the cups nor the purchase of the cases is a taxable transaction. Since the issues in the two cases are quite different, we discuss them separately-

First, the paper cups. CocaCola, as plaintiff, brought suit to recover use taxes which it…