Cite as: 517 U. S. 843 (1996)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
most complex of businesses, with a multitude of coverage and policy options in different product lines, all generated and still evolving in pursuit of the profitable and efficient underwriting of risks. Not every case will fit the simple model here: a policy written for a single shipment; coverage beginning only with a common carrier picking up the goods from the warehouse or manufacturing plant; simple ascertainment of point of entry into the export stream. Stipulation of Facts ¶¶ 13, 16, App. to Pet. for Cert. 37a, 39a; cf. A. G. Spalding & Bros. v. Edwards, 262 U. S. 66, 68-69 (1923) (delivery to common carrier signals commencement of export).
Commercial inland marine transit insurance, the form of casualty insurance which covers domestic transportation of goods, "is usually written on an open basis, under which all shipments of the kind of merchandise described in the policy are covered." Holtom, supra, at 435. It would appear, from today's decision, that if a company has an open policy from a foreign insurer covering the domestic leg of the journey for all shipments, the IRS must untangle what portion of the insurance covered goods that had commenced the process of exportation, and then prorate the tax. So too would proration (or some other accommodation) appear necessary if the policy is taken out on a single shipment but part of the shipment is delivered within the country and part abroad.
In addition, the Court's decision draws the IRS into the factual morass of determining when exportation has begun. That will often be less clear than it is here. For example, a company may have its own trucks carry goods to a freight forwarder or port, or a hiatus in the journey might be extensive enough to remove the goods from the export stream, see Joy Oil Co. v. State Tax Comm'n, 337 U. S. 286, 288-289 (1949); since "not every preliminary movement of goods toward eventual exportation" triggers the constitutional immunity, Kosydar v. National Cash Register Co., 417 U. S. 62, 69, n. 6 (1974), the determination of the commencement of
871
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