Cutliff v. The Mayor

• Decision Date: 31 August 1878
• Citation: 60 Ga. 598
• Parties: Cutliff et al. v. The Mayor, etc., of Albany.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

60 Ga. 598

Cutliff et al. v. The Mayor, etc., of Albany.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

August Term, 1878.

Taxes. Constitutional law. Before Judge Crisp. Dougherty Superior Court. April Term, 1878.

Reported in the decision.

D. A. Vason, for plaintiffs in error, cited as follows: Tax illegal, constitution 1877, art. 7, sec. 2; art. 8, sec. 3; charter of Albany, 1841, sec. 12; amended charter (1858) sec. 6; amended 1859, p. 11; 36 Ga., 460; Code, § 4847. City cannot tax income, 8 Ga., 23; 50 Ib., 530; 42 Ib., 416; 54 Ib., 645; 50 Ib., 537.

*WooTEN & Jones, for defendants, cited as follows: City has power to impose license tax on occupations, 50 Ga., 53; 42 Ib., 596.

Warner, Chief Justice.

This was a bill filed by the complainants against the Mayorand Council of the city of Albany, praying for an injunction to restrain the defendants from proceeding to enforce a certain tax ordinance of said city. Upon hearing the application for the injunction prayed for, the chancellor refused to grant it; whereupon the complainants excepted.

By its amended charter the defendants are authorized to levy such taxes as may be necessary for the support of the city government, and in such a way as shall be deemed by them to operate most equally on all the citizens and property within the corporate limits of the city. On the 7th of January, 1878, the Mayor and Council of the city of Albany passed an ordinance imposing a special tax upon those who were engaged in certain business pursuits or callings within the limits of said city, such as retailing spirituous liquors, keeping boarding houses, billiard tables, livery stables, and various other business pursuits enumerated in said ordinance. The complaint is that only a small portion of the business avocations of the citizens of Albany are taxed, whereas there are many business pursuits and avocations carried on in the city which are not taxed by said ordinance; that the constitution of 1877 requires that all taxation shall be uniform; that if you tax the liquor-dealer in said city, you must also tax the gardener, and every other pursuit or avocation carried on within the limits of the city. The constitution of 1877 declares that "all taxation shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects to be taxed within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, " that is to say, that if a tax of twenty-five dollars is levied upon the class of liquor-dealers in said city, the same tax must be levied upon all of that...