City of Independence v. Cleveland

• Decision Date: 11 March 1902
• Citation: 67 S.W. 216,167 Mo. 384
• Parties: CITY OF INDEPENDENCE v. CLEVELAND, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

67 S.W. 216

167 Mo. 384

CITY OF INDEPENDENCE v. CLEVELAND, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri, Second Division

March 11, 1902

Appeal from Jackson Criminal Court. -- Hon. Samuel Davis, Special Judge.

Reversed.

Wollman Solomon & Cooper and Flournoy & Flournoy for appellant.

(1) The ordinance in question, in that it does not put any license tax on steam laundries located in Independence, or upon agents of such laundries, is in violation of section 3 of article 10 of the Constitution of Missouri. State v North & Scott, 27 Mo. 464; St. Louis v Spiegel, 90 Mo. 587; Kansas City v. Grush, 151 Mo. 128. (2) The ordinance is void because no power is given to the city of Independence by its charter to put a license tax on agents of steam laundries. Laws 1893, p. 89, sec. 107; Sec. 1900, R. S. 1889; Trenton v. Clayton, 50 Mo.App. 535; Kansas City v. Lorber, 64 Mo.App. 605; Joplin v. Leckie, 78 Mo.App. 8; Kansas City v. Grush, supra.

Sam W. Hilt for respondent.

(1) The ordinance here in question is clearly within the limits of the Constitution of Missouri. Sec. 3, art. 10, Constitution. (2) The council is authorized by charter to tax agents. Sec. 1506, R. S. 1889; Sec. 107, Laws 1893, p. 89. (3) The constitutionality and legality of such an ordinance has received the stamp and approval of this court. St. Louis v. Bowler, 94 Mo. 630.

OPINION

BURGESS, J.

Defendant was convicted in the police court of Independence, Jackson county, Missouri, a city of the third class, and fined in the sum of fifty dollars, for unlawfully conducting in said city an agency for a steam laundry without first having a license therefor, as required by the ordinances of said city. He appealed to the criminal court of said county, where, upon a trial de novo before the court, a jury being waived, he was again convicted, and a fine assessed against him in the sum of thirty dollars. After unsuccessful motion for new trial he appeals to this court.

The ordinance upon which this prosecution is based is as follows:

"An ordinance to license, tax and regulate the different classes of business, employments, occupations, agencies, public halls and amusements in the City of Independence, Missouri.

"Section 1. No person, firm, company, corporation or association, without first having obtained a license therefor, shall, in the city of Independence, engage, carry on or exercise any of the following classes of business, occupations, employments, agencies or amusements, and the charges for such license shall be as follows. . . . Agents of steam laundries fifteen dollars per year. . . .

"Sec. 7. Any person in this city who shall violate any of the provisions of this ordinance shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than five dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars."

It was admitted that M. J. Cleveland, the appellant, was the agent of Woolf Brothers Steam Laundry, located in Kansas City, Missouri, and had been such agent since the date of the ordinance in question, and that there were and had been during said time two steam laundries located in said city of Independence.

The evidence showed that defendant had never taken out a license to act as the agent for a steam laundry; that the ordinance introduced by respondent was the only ordinance of the city relative to laundries, and that there was no ordinance of the city putting a license tax on laundries located at Independence; that there was no attempt on the part of the city to levy any tax on the agents of laundries located at Independence.

There are but two points presented by this appeal, both of which are raised by the motion for a new trial and in no other way. The first challenges the power of the city of Independence by its charter to impose a license tax on agents of steam laundries. The argument of defendant is, as we understand it, that the city has no power to levy a license tax upon steam laundries themselves, and is therefore without authority to impose such a tax upon their agents.

The only authority which the city of Independence has to levy and collect a license tax upon agents, trades and occupations is to be found in section 107, Laws 1893, p. 89. It reads as follows:

"The council shall have power and authority to levy and collect a license tax on beer depots or storerooms, auctioneers, druggists, hawkers, peddlers, banks, brokers, pawn-brokers, merchants of all kinds, grocers, confectioners, restaurants, butchers, taverns, hotels, public boarding-houses, dramshops, saloons, liquor-sellers, billiard and pool tables and other gaming tables, bowling alleys, hay scales, lumber dealers, livery-stable keepers, real estate agents, loan companies, loan agents, public buildings, public halls, opera houses, public grounds, concerts, photographists, bill posters, artists, agents , porters, runners, drummers, public lecturers, public meetings, circuses and shows, for parades and exhibitions, or both, horse and cattle dealers, patent-right dealers, stock yards, wagon yards, inspectors, gaugers, mercantile agents, insurance companies, insurance agents, manufacturing and other corporations or institutions, street railroad cars, hackney carriages, omnibuses, carts, drays, transfer and job wagons, ice wagons...