American Mfg. Co. v. Alt

Decision Date04 April 1916
Docket NumberNo. 14233.,14233.
Citation184 S.W. 1167
PartiesAMERICAN MFG. CO. v. ALT.
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Leo S. Rassieur, Judge.

"Not to be officially published."

Action by the American Manufacturing Company against Louis Alt. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Barclay, Orthwein & Wallace, of St. Louis, for appellant. E. C. Slevin, of St. Louis, for respondent.

NORTONI, J.

Plaintiff prosecutes this appeal from a judgment against it on demurrer to its petition. The petition is in three counts. The material averments presenting the question for consideration here are the same in each count and it is therefore unnecessary to set forth more than one.

The first count of the petition is as follows:

"(1) The American Manufacturing Company, plaintiff, states that it was at all times hereafter stated a corporation duly organized and incorporated under the laws of the state of West Virginia and licensed to do business in the state of Missouri, and had at said times in the city of St. Louis an office and factories for the manufacture of bagging, and was doing business in the city of St. Louis as a manufacturer, and that defendant, Louis Alt, is and was at said times the license collector of and for the city of St. Louis, Mo.

"(2) Plaintiff further states that the greatest aggregate amount of raw materials of plaintiff on hand in the city of St. Louis at any one time between the first Monday of March and the first Monday of June of the year 1908 included jute butts, in the original packages, of the value of $75,855, imported by plaintiff from foreign countries for the purpose of being manufactured by it into bagging and then awaiting manufacture.

"(3) Plaintiff further states that said defendant demanded that plaintiff should pay (in addition to all taxes on all of plaintiff's other raw material, finished products, tools, machinery, and appliances which plaintiff paid), as a condition to the issuance of its license for the then succeeding year, a sum of money equal to a tax of 17 cents (imposed by the state of Missouri on each $100 of value of the greatest aggregate amount of raw material of plaintiff on hand in said city at any one time between the first Monday of March and the first Monday of June of the year 1908) on each $100 of value of said imported material, and said defendant refused to issue to plaintiff a manufacturer's license unless it paid him said sum amounting to $128.95, and, assuming to act by virtue of the authority vested in said office of license collector, threatened to have plaintiff prosecuted daily in the courts of this state, and daily fined for carrying on in the city of St. Louis without a manufacturer's license the business of a manufacturer; that plaintiff was not authorized to continue its business in said city without a manufacturer's license from said defendant as said collector, and each day's continuance in business without such license was a separate offense under the laws of the state of Missouri and ordinances of the city of St. Louis, and said defendant was empowered under said statutes and ordinances to institute prosecutions against plaintiff for each day it continued its business in the city of St. Louis without said manufacturer's license, and it was impossible for plaintiff to continue in business as a manufacturer in said city without said license; and the plaintiff says that because of its liability to and the threat of such prosecutions and the duress thereby created, and the urgent business necessity of the situation, it paid to said defendant, in order to avoid prosecution and continue its business under protest, said sum of $128.95, and thereupon received from said defendant a manufacturer's license for the then succeeding year, and plaintiff was compelled to make such payment in order to continue in business as a manufacturer in the city of St. Louis. Plaintiff further states that, under the ordinances of said city of St. Louis, its failure to have...

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10 cases
  • Cape Girardeau v. Groves Motor Co., 36862.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Missouri
    • 10 Septiembre 1940
    ...(2d) 129; State ex rel. v. Ashbrook, 154 Mo. 375, 55 S.W. 627; St. Louis v. Spiegel, 75 Mo. 145; American Mfg. Co. v. Alt, 270 Mo. 589, 184 S.W. 1167, Id., 238 Mo. 267, 142 S.W. BOHLING, C. The City of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, recovered a judgment of $1,140.75 against Fred A. Groves Motor ......
  • Brink v. Kansas City
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Missouri
    • 9 Diciembre 1946
    ...Mfg. Co. v. Reynolds et al., supra, was in certiorari to quash the opinion of the St. Louis Court of Appeals in American Mfg. Co. v. Alt, 184 S.W. 1167. The plaintiff was a manufacturer in St. Louis; Alt was city collector. The collector refused to issue to plaintiff a license to operate fo......
  • City of Cape Girardeau v. Fred A. Groves Motor Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Missouri
    • 10 Septiembre 1940
    ......329;. Young v. Lexington, 235 Ky. 822, 32 S.W.2d 410;. Pacific Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Seattle, 172 Wash. 649,. 21 P.2d 721; American Express Co. v. St. Joseph, 66. Mo. 675; St. Louis v. Sternberg, 69 Mo. 289;. Village of Beverly Hills v. Schulter, 130 S.W.2d. 532; St. ...Hammond, 329 Mo. 1118, 49 S.W.2d 129; State. ex rel. v. Ashbrook, 154 Mo. 375, 55 S.W. 627; St. Louis v. Spiegel, 75 Mo. 145; American Mfg. Co. v. Alt,. 270 Mo. 589, 184 S.W. 1167, Id., 238 Mo. 267, 142 S.W. 297. . .          Bohling,. C. Cooley and Westhues, CC. , ......
  • Brink v. Kansas City
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Missouri
    • 9 Diciembre 1946
    ...... duress. Claflin v. McDonough, 33 Mo. 412; Franke. v. St. Louis, 249 S.W. 379; State ex rel. American. Mfg. Co. v. Reynolds, 270 Mo. 589, 194 S.W. 878;. Wolfe v. Marshall, 52 Mo. 167; Robbins v. Latham, 134 Mo. 466, 36 S.W. 33; Pritchard v. ......
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