Scott

The plaintiff in these actions seeks to recover taxes assessed against it under the Corporation Tax Act of August 5, 1909 (36 Stats, p. 112, c. 6), for the four years 1909-1912, inclusive, and paid by it under protest. The statute (section 38) provides:

The sole controverted question upon which judgment turns is whether plaintiff was, within the purview of the statute, “engaged in business'5 or “doing business” in the state at the date of the several assessments, and so subject to the tax.

The plaintiff is an English corporation organized for profit, having a capital stock represented by shares, and engaged in the match trade, with its home office or place of business in London. Prior to 1898 it acquired and owned, jointly with the Diamond Match Company, an American corporation, a large acreage of timber land in this state, and was therein engaged with that company in the manufacture of *876 matches near Chico, in Butte county, where it maintained its local office. In December, 1898, it sold its interest in the enterprise; that is, it made an executory contract of sale to the Diamond Match Company of its entire title and interest in all its property in the state, and at that…