Anne Arundel County Com'rs v. English

• Citation: 35 A.2d 135,182 Md. 514
• Decision Date: 15 December 1943
• Docket Number: 56.
• Parties: COUNTY COM'RS OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY v. ENGLISH.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Maryland

35 A.2d 135

182 Md. 514

COUNTY COM'RS OF ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY v. ENGLISH.

No. 56.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

December 15, 1943

Appeal from Circuit Court, Anne Arundel County; Ridgely P. Melvin Chief Judge.

Suit by James Matthew English against the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County for a decree declaring unconstitutional the act requiring operators of trailers in Arundel County to pay a license fee of $30 per year. From a decree for plaintiff, defendants appeal.

Affirmed.

Emanuel Klawans, of Annapolis (Benjamin Michaelson, of Annapolis, on the brief), for appellants.

M. Wm Adelson, of Baltimore (Michael Paul Smith, of Baltimore, on the brief), amici curiae on behalf of Commissioners of Balto County.

Philip H. Dorsey, of Leonardtown, for Commissioners of St. Mary's County.

Albert J. Goodman, of Annapolis, and Edward L. Ward, of Baltimore, for appellee.

Before SLOAN, C.J., and DELAPLAINE, COLLINS, MARBURY, ADAMS, and BAILEY, JJ.

COLLINS Judge.

The appellee, James Matthew English, at the time of the institution of the proceedings in this case, was the owner of a trailer worth about $600, consisting of living and sleeping quarters and a kitchenette, from which the wheels had been removed and which was resting on wooden blocks at Heintzeman's Trailer Grove in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He, together with his family, had been occupying this trailer house as a residence, place of abode and habitation continuously during the whole of the year, 1942, and to date in 1943. This trailer house is not being used as a place of business or for any occupation, trade or calling, but it is exclusively a home for the appellee and his family. He pays a weekly rental to the landowner of $3 a week and pays for all electric current used in his trailer house. He also paid the license fee to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for the years, 1942 and 1943, as provided in the 1939 Code, Article 56, Section 157. This trailer was duly assessed in the amount of $100 by the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County for State and County property taxes for the year, 1943, and under this assessment, as personal property, taxes were paid to the Treasurer of Anne Arundel County in the amount of $2.46. The appellee had been a resident of Anne Arundel County continuously since the year, 1941, and has been continuously employed since that time in the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipbuilding Company plant at Fairfield in said county. Some trailers at that camp were worth around $2,500 and all have sleeping quarters and cooking quarters, and the majority also have living quarters and ice boxes. It is stipulated and agreed that the Heintzeman's Trailer Camp, where this trailer is located, has been fully examined by the Health Commission of Anne Arundel County and that it complies with the health regulations now enforced, as does also the appellee's trailer.

The General Assembly of Maryland, at the 1943 session, passed an Act, Chapter 983, applicable only to Anne Arundel County, now Article 2, Sections 486A, 486B, 486C, 486D and 486E of the Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland, 1930 Edition, which was duly signed, the essential parts of which, for the purpose of this case it is necessary to quote, being as follows:

'486A. On and after June 15, 1943, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to maintain, reside in or operate in Anne Arundel County any trailer used or to be used in the habitation or living quarters of any person or persons, without having secured a license for the maintenance of each such trailer from the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. The annual license fee for each such trailer shall be Thirty ($30.00) Dollars per year, accounting from June 1, 1943, and June 1st in each year thereafter. * * *

'All sums received by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for issuance of trailer licenses shall be paid over monthly to the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County and expended by it as a part of the general funds of Anne Arundel County.

'486B. The tenant or lessee of a trailer shall be the person charged with the primary responsibility of securing a license for the use of said trailer in accordance with Section 486A. If the owner, operator, tenant, or lessee of a trailer fails to secure a license, the license fee shall become a lien on such trailer. The lien on such trailer may be enforced by sale at public auction by the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County, after notice by advertisement for two successive weeks in one or more newspapers of general circulation published in Anne Arundel County. In case any trailer remains unlicensed for a period of five days, the owner of the land on which such trailer is located shall immediately notify the Building Inspector. It shall be the duty of the Building Inspector to enforce the provisions of this sub-title.

'486C. Any person, firm or corporation operating, maintaining or residing in a trailer in Anne Arundel County without having secured a license, as required by Section 486A shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction, shall be fined not more than Twenty-five ($25.00) Dollars for each such violation, and each day that such violation shall continue shall be deemed a separate offense.

* * *

* * *

'486E. The term 'trailer' as used in this sub-title means any structure of whatsoever kind or nature, utilized or capable of being utilized as the habitation or living quarters of any person or persons, which said structure is not in any manner whatsoever connected with the land on which it stands, except that connections for water, sewage and other similar facilities shall not be deemed a connection with the land within the definition herein set forth. The provisions of this sub-title shall be liberally construed in favor of the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County, and nothing herein contained in any manner shall be held to require a restriction of the licensing provisions of this subtitle only to automobile trailers or similar trailers, but this sub-title shall apply to all structures within the definition herein set forth.

'Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any provision, clause, sentence, phrase, or part of this Act, or the application thereof to any person, firm or corporation or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of this sub-title and the application of such provisions to other persons, firms and corporations and circumstances shall not be affected thereby.'

The appellee filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County on June 15, 1943, alleging in substance the facts above stated and further that said Act of 1943, Chapter 983, supra, is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional and asked in said bill that said Act be declared unconstitutional, illegal and void. After answer filed by the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County, testimony was taken in open court. On the 6th day of August, 1943, that Court passed a decree declaring that Chapter 983 of the Acts of 1943 was unconstitutional, null and void and ordered the defendants to pay the costs. An appeal is taken to this Court from that decree.

In approaching this question, this Court is mindful that the presumption is in favor of the validity of the law and it assumes that the Legislature intended a lawful enactment. A reasonable doubt as to its constitutionality is enough to sustain the act. We cannot be concerned with the question of policy or the wisdom of the statute, as such questions of usefulness of the law, policy and expediency are for the Legislature. Baltimore v. State, 15 Md. 376, 453, 74 Am.Dec. 572; Harrison v. State, 22 Md. 468, 491, 85 Am.Dec. 658; Anderson v. Baker, 23 Md. 531, 628; Davis v. Helbig, 27 Md. 452, 462, 92 Am.Dec. 646; Fell v. State, 42 Md. 71, 89, 20 Am.Rep. 83; Shaffer v. Union Mining Co., 55 Md. 74, 80; Painter v. Mattfeldt, 119 Md. 466, 472, 87 A. 413; Ruehl v. State, 130 Md. 188, 194, 100 A. 75; Oursler v. Tawes, 178 Md. 471, 487, 13 A.2d 763. In addition to the general presumption in favor of its validity, the Act specifically states that it shall be liberally construed in favor of the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County. We must also recognize that the Legislature has the power of taxation over property in this State except as restricted by the Federal and State Constitutions. McLane v. State Tax Commission, 156 Md. 133, 140, 143 A. 656; Oursler v. Tawes, supra, 178 Md. 482, 13 A.2d 763.

The question therefore for our decision is whether this taxing measure is forbidden by the Constitution of the United States and by the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the State of Maryland and more specifically by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and by Articles 15 and 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights.

It is apparent that this Act is essentially a revenue-producing measure. The flat tax of $30 per year has no relation as to the cost to the County to enforce the statute. By payment of the tax, the licensee receives a license and no other conditions are required. There is no provision in the Act as to compliance with health regulations. When a person pays his $30 tax, he gets his trailer license, and there are no other conditions to be complied with in order to get that license. This makes it a revenue measure. It cannot therefore be held constitutional on the grounds that it is enacted under the police power. Judge Marbury said in the recent case of Maryland Theatrical Co. v. Brennan, 180 Md. 377, at pages 381 and 385, 24 A.2d 911, 914: 'In general, it may be said that when it appears from the act itself that revenue is its main objective, and the amount of the tax...