Decree entered. when it becomes absolutely necessary to prevent injustice. Evidently such a claim must depend very largely upon the statutory provisions of the State, and to those the court have not been referred. Unless the statutes present some insuperable difficulties in the way of such a recovery, no doubt is entertained that the plaintiff will be entitled to enforce that claim in such form of remedy as is allowed by the local law. Whoever takes and holds possession of land to which another has a better title is in general liable to the true owner for all the rents and profits which he has received, whether the owner recover the possession of the premises in an action at law or in a suit in equity.* Depending, as such a claim necessarily must, very much upon the statutes of the State, the court, on the authority of the case of Miles v. Caldwell,† as well as for the other reasons suggested, deems it proper to leave the party to prosecute the claim as he may be advised in the tribunals of original jurisdiction, as better suited to investigate and adjudicate such a claim than a court of errors. Besides the relief already described, the decree will also direct that the plaintiff be put in possession of the premises, and for that purpose he will be entitled to a writ of possession to be issued by the clerk of this court. DECREE REVERSED, and the following DECREE ENTERED. The cause having heretofore been argued by the counsel of the respective parties, and submitted to the court for a decision upon the plaintiff's petition and the answer of the defendants, and the proofs, exhibits, documents, stipulations, and other evidence in the cause, as appears by the authenticated transcript of the record annexed to and returned with the writ of error, and mature consideration having been had thereon, it is ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, that so much of the decree *Green v. Biddle, 8 Wheaton, 70; Chirac v. Reinicker, 11 Id. 296; Same Case, 2 Peters, 617. 2 Wallace, 44. Decree entered. of the Supreme Court of the State as dismissed the petition of the plaintiff be, and the same is hereby, reversed with costs. And it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed, that the tract of 4 x 4 arpents claimed by the plaintiff was confirmed by the board of commissioners to Joseph Brazeau or his legal representatives, and that the said tract of land as meted and bounded, justly and equitably belongs to the plaintiff, as alleged in his petition, and as shown by the survey of the 8th of May, 1862, and by the patent of the 10th of June following, duly executed and signed by the President. Wherefore, this court proceeding to render such decree in the case as the Supreme Court of the State should have rendered, it is ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, that the said tract of land, being the said 4 x 4 arpents claimed by the plaintiff, and meted and bounded as follows, viz.: Beginning at a point on the right bank of the Mississippi River, the northeast corner of survey No. 3342, in the name of Esther, a free mulatress, or her legal representatives, and the southeast corner of Louis Labeaume's survey, No. 3333; thence south 74 degrees 30 minutes west, with the southern boundary of said Labeaume's survey, and the northern boundary of the said Esther survey, to the northwest corner of the said Esther survey; thence north 23 degrees west, 776 feet 8 inches, to a stone; thence north 74 degrees 30 minutes east, 776 feet 8 inches, to a point on the right bank of the Mississippi River; thence down and along the right bank of said river to the beginning; be and the same is hereby decreed to the plaintiff, and all the right, title, and interest of each and every one of said defendants, in and to said tract of land, is hereby divested out of said defendants, and each of them, and that the same is vested in and by virtue of the patent passed to the plaintiff; to have and to hold to the said plaintiff, his heirs and assigns, the said tract of land so passed to him and his heirs and assigns forever, being the same which is covered by the survey No. 3343, approved May 8th, 1862, and patented to Joseph Brazeau, 10th June, in the same year, as appears by the record. AND IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED, that the plaintiff recover the possession of the said tract of land as herein meted and bounded, and that a writ of possession issue for that purpose in the usual form, directed to the marshal of this court, duly executed by the clerk, and under the seal of this court. Statement of the case. Mr. Justice SWAYNE, Mr. Justice STRONG, and Mr. Justice BRADLEY, dissented. Mr. Justice HUNT did not hear the argument, and took no part in the judgment. BARNES V. THE RAILROADS. The one hundred and sixteenth section of the Internal Revenue Act of June 30th, 1864, amended by the act of March 2d, 1867, laid a tax of 5 per cent. on incomes derived from any source whatever. The one hundred and nineteenth section enacted "that the taxes on incomes herein imposed shall be levied on the 1st day of March, and be due and payable on or before the 30th day of April in each year until and including the year 1870, and no longer." The one hundred and twenty-second section, as subsequently amended, imposed a tax of 5 per cent. on all interest payable and dividends declared by any railroad or canal company, &c., whenever payable; to be paid by the company and deducted from the amount payable to the bond or stockholder. Held (by a court nearly equally divided, and the majority who agreed in the judgment not agreeing in the grounds of it), that interest or dividends which accrued prior to the 1st of January, 1870, were taxable under the act, though payable or declared on or after the date named. ERROR to the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; the case being thus: The one hundred and sixteenth section of the act of June 30th, 1864, as amended by the thirteenth section of the act of March 2d, 1867,* enacts: "SECTION 116. That there shall be levied, collected, and paid annually upon the gains, profits, and income of every person residing in the United States, or of any citizen of the United States residing abroad, whether derived from any kind of property, rents, interest, dividends, or salaries, or from any profession, trade, employment, or vocation, carried on in the United States or elsewhere, or from any other source whatever, a tax of 5 * 13 Stat. at Large, 281; 14 Id. 477. Statement of the case. per centum on the amount so derived over $1000, and a like tax shall be levied, collected, and paid annually upon the gains, profits, and income of every business, trade, or profession carried on in the United States by persons residing without the United States, and not citizens thereof. And the tax herein provided for shall be assessed, collected, and paid upon the gains, profits, and income for the year ending the 31st day of December next preceding the time for levying, collecting, and paying said tax." The one hundred and seventeenth section of the same act, as amended in the same way, required that there should be included, inter alia, in the estimate of gains, profits, and income, which the act made it obligatory on the taxpayer to return, the share of any person of the gains and profits of all companies, whether incorporated or partnership, who would be entitled to the same if divided, whether divided or otherwise, Except the amount of income received from institutions or corporations whose officers, as required by law, withhold a percentum of the dividends made by such institutions, and pay the same to the officer authorized to receive the same, and except that portion of the salary or pay received for services in the civil, military, or naval, or other service of the United States, including senators, representatives, and delegates in Congress, from which the tax has been deducted." The one hundred and eighteenth section related to the manner of the party's making and the assessor's obtaining returns of that portion of the taxpayer's income which was to be paid by such taxpayer directly. The one hundred and nineteenth section, as amended by the already-mentioned section of the act of March 2d, 1867,* enacts: "SECTION 119. That the taxes on incomes herein imposed shall be levied on the 1st day of March, and be due and payable on or before the 30th day of April in each year, until and including the year 1870, and no longer." 13 Stat. at Large, 283; 14 Id. 480. Statement of the case. The one hundred and twenty-second section of the same act as amended by the ninth section of the act of July 13th, 1866,* enacts: "SECTION 122. That any railroad, canal, turnpike, canal navigation, or slack-water company, indebted for any money for which bonds or other evidence of indebtedness have been issued, payable in one or more years after date, upon which interest is stipulated to be paid, or coupons representing the interest, or any such company that may have declared any dividend in scrip or money, due or payable to its stockholders, including non-residents, whether citizens or aliens, as part of the earnings, profits, income, or gains of such company, and all profits of such company carried to the account of any fund, or used for construction, shall be subject to and pay a tax of 5 per centum on the amount of all such interest, or coupons, dividends, or profits, whenever and wherever the same shall be payable, and to whatever party or person the same may be payable, including nonresidents, whether citizens or aliens. "And said companies are hereby authorized to deduct and withhold from all payments on account of any interest, or coupons, and dividends, due and payable as aforesaid, the tax of 5 per centum ; and the payment of the amount of said tax so deducted from the interest, or coupons, or dividends, and certified by the president or treasurer of said company, shall discharge said company from that amount of the dividend, or interest, or coupon, on the bonds or other evidences of their indebtedness so held by any person or party whatever, except where said companies. may have contracted otherwise." This is the material part of the section; another paragraph, however, being referred to in one of the opinions given further on in the case, as bearing on the question hereafter stated as in controversy, the paragraph, which runs thus, is added: "And a list or return shall be made and rendered to the assessor or assistant assessor, on or before the 10th day of the month following that in which said interest, coupons, or dividends become due and payable, and as often as every six * 13 Stat. at Large, 284; 14 Id. 138. |