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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Ward
Citation:
84 L. Ed. 2d 751 (1985)Facts
Since 1955, Alabama had imposed a substantially higher gross premiums tax on out-of-state insurance companies than on domestic ones. Foreign life insurance companies paid a 3% tax on premiums from Alabama business, while foreign companies selling other types of insurance paid 4%. In contrast, all domestic insurance companies paid only 1% on all types of premiums. The statute allowed foreign companies to reduce (but never eliminate) this differential by investing prescribed percentages of their worldwide assets in specified Alabama investments. Metropolitan Life and other out-of-state insurers challenged this tax scheme as violating the Equal Protection Clause, seeking refunds of taxes paid from 1977-1980. The state courts upheld the statute, finding it served legitimate purposes of encouraging formation of new domestic insurance companies and encouraging capital investment in Alabama assets.
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