McDuffie

On July 31, 1933, an act known as the “Retail Sales Act of 1933” (Stats. 1933, p. 2599) became *297 effective. Particularly by the provisions of section 3 thereof, a tax was imposed on retailers of “tangible personal property”. In effect, section 4 of the act provides that where a retail sale is made “under a contract made prior to the effective date of this act, ... the seller may add the tax imposed by this act to the sale price and collect it from the buyer”. Although the statute contains several other provisions which, considered either singly or as a whole, may be regarded as indicative of the intention of the legislature in passing the act as to whether the tax should be borne directly by the retailer, or whether the retailer should be entitled to compel payment thereof by the purchaser,-—in the main, the provisions to which attention has been directed are controlling.

Richfield Oil Company is a producer of oil. Some time “prior to the effective date of this act”, under the terms of a contract that had been entered into between Richfield Oil Company and each of several “consumers” of oil, the former agreed to sell to each of such “consumers” large quantities of oil.…