Northern Natural Gas Co. v. Bender

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Fontron, J.:

This is an action by Northern Natural Gas Company, (to whom we shall refer either as plaintiff or Northern), to recover taxes paid under protest to Clay County.

The plaintiff owns and operates an interstate system of pipelines and is subject to regulation by the Federal Power Commission. Some of its Kansas property is in Clay County. The defendants named in the caption are Clay County and State officials whose duties are related to the assessment or collection of taxes.

Northern predicates its right to recover its taxes on two bases: First,…