City of St. Louis v. Freivogel

• Decision Date: 04 June 1888
• Parties: CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. FREIVOGEL.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

8 S.W. 715

95 Mo. 533

CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. FREIVOGEL.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 4, 1888.

1. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS — ORDINANCES — VALIDITY — IMPOSITION OF LICENSE TAXES.

Rev. Ord. St. Louis 1887, § 889, provides that no one shall keep a meat-shop in St. Louis without first having obtained a license therefor, and one doing business as a meat-shop keeper shall pay an annual license of $50, is not invalid, as made without power on the part of the municipal authorities to tax keepers of meat-shops; such power being conferred by the charter of St. Louis, which provides that the mayor and assembly shall have power to license and tax grocers, merchants, and retailers, and all other business, trades, avocations, or professions.

2. SAME — ORDINANCES — VALIDITY — DISCRIMINATION.

Where one ordinance provides that a meat-shop keeper's license shall entitle him to sell meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, and fruit, and another ordinance provides that "the inner portion of all market-houses shall be set apart for butchers' stalls, and that any stall outside of any market-house may be used for the sale of vegetables, fruit," etc., "or other article except fresh meat," the former ordinance does not discriminate, in that meat-shop keepers inside the market-houses are not allowed to sell vegetables and fruits, since the prohibition so to do is contained in the latter ordinance.

3. SAME.

Rev. Ord. St. Louis 1887, § 889, providing that no one shall keep a meat-shop in St. Louis without having first obtained a license therefor; that such person shall pay an annual license tax of $50; that all meat-shop keepers who have paid their license may deliver meat in a wagon or otherwise, without taking out an additional license therefor; that all persons offering for sale salt or fresh meat, fish, sausage etc., shall be considered meat-shop keepers, except that grocers who sell ham, shoulders, dried beef, bacon, etc., shall not be included, — does not discriminate in favor of grocers, since such articles are a part of a grocer's stock.

Appeal from St. Louis court of criminal correction; E. A. NOONAN, Judge.

Christian Freivogel was tried, under the ordinance of St. Louis, for keeping a meat-shop without a license. There was a conviction, and defendant appeals.

Steber & Clark, for appellant. Leverett Bell, for respondent.

NORTON, C. J.

An ordinance of the city of St. Louis contains the following section: Sec. 889. "No person, persons, or copartnership of persons shall open or keep a meat-shop in the city of St. Louis, without having first obtained from the collector a license therefor; and any person, persons, or copartnership of persons, doing business as a meat-shop keeper or keepers, shall pay an annual license of fifty dollars, in advance, which license shall authorize and empower such person, persons, or copartnership of persons to sell, in their shops, all kinds of fresh and salt meats, fresh and salt fish, sausage and sausage meat, whether made by them or not; and also all kinds of fowl and game, in their proper seasons, that is not prohibited being sold or offered for sale by any ordinance of this city or law of this state; all kinds of vegetables and fruit, in large or small quantities, — for one year from the date of such license. And it is hereby provided that the owners of meat-shops who have paid their license may be permitted to deliver meat in a wagon or otherwise, without taking out an additional license therefor. It is hereby provided that if any person, persons, or copartnership of persons shall exhibit for sale, or offer for sale, any of the above-enumerated articles, vegetables and fruit excepted, in any market, stall, place, or shop in this city, whether sold or not, such person, persons, or copartnership of persons shall be considered to be meat-shop keepers, as herein defined, and shall be adjudged to be such in the full meaning of this section: and provided, further, that nothing in this section shall be so construed as to include grocers who sell ham, shoulders, dried beef, bacon, salt fish, and smoked sausage." It appears from the record that defendant sold meat in the Union market in St. Louis, having rented a stall in said market for the purpose of selling meat threat. He was arrested for conducting said business without first having taken out a license as required by the above ordinance, was convicted in the police court, and fined $50; and, on his appeal to the court of criminal correction, was again convicted and fined, from which he has appealed to this court. And the first point made by counsel on the appeal is that while, under the charter of the city, the municipal assembly had the power to license and regulate meat-shops, it had no power to tax them. The second made is that if the assembly was empowered by the charter to tax meat-shop keepers, that the tax imposed is invalid, because of discrimination, and because it is not uniform.

As to the points made under the first ground of objection, viz., that the...