Esso Standard Oil Co. v. Evans

These are appeals from the Supreme Court of Tennessee, affirming a Chancery Court judgment for some $196,000 in favor of the State Commissioner of Finance and Taxation, against Esso Standard Oil Co., the party of record in No. 330. Ultimately liable, the United States intervened in that litigation and brought a separate appeal here, No. 378. It contended that the state tax involved is barred by principles of sovereign immunity. This is a test case. We are told that if the tax is sustained, a liability for upwards of $4,000,000 will result.

The facts are these. During World War II the…