District of Columbia v. H. D. Lee Co.

PRETTYMAN, Associate Justice.

Respondent is engaged in the manufacture of work clothing and has its factory and office at Trenton, New Jersey. It sends salesmen into the District of Columbia to solicit orders from merchants there. The goods thus sold are shipped f. o. b. Trenton, either by a common-carrier truck or by rail, and the purchaser pays the shipping charges at destination. Respondent has no office or place of business or any stock of merchandise in the District of Columbia.

An income tax was assessed against the company on the basis of sales made by it to merchants in the District o"f…