Fletcher Oil Co. v. Bay City

• Decision Date: 08 July 1929
• Docket Number: No. 30.,30.
• Citation: 247 Mich. 572,226 N.W. 248
• Parties: FLETCHER OIL CO. v. BAY CITY.
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court

247 Mich. 572

226 N.W. 248

FLETCHER OIL CO.

v.BAY CITY.

No. 30.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

July 8, 1929.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Bay County, in Chancery; George W. Sample, Judge.

Bill in equity by the Fletcher Oil Company against the City of Bay City to restrain defendant from enforcing ordinance regulating gasoline filling stations. From a decree dismissing bill, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Argued before the Entire Bench.

Collins & Thompson, of Bay City, for appellant.

A. H. McMillan, of Bay City, for appellee.

POTTER, J.

Plaintiff filed a bill to restrain defendant from enforcing or attempting to enforce against it an ordinance to regulate the location and maintenance of gasoline filling stations and to grant licenses therefore. Defendant moved to dismiss the bill of complaint because it did not state a cause of action, the ordinance was valid, the license fee provided therein not a tax, the ordinance within the power of the city, and a valid regulatory ordinance. The trial court dismissed the bill of complaint, and plaintiff appeals.

The ordinance involved herein provides for licensing gasoline filling stations, when in the judgment of the city commission, by reason of traffic conditions or fire or explosion hazard, a filling station would not imperil public safety, and to refuse to license it when it would do so. Such gasoline filling stations are made subject to inspection by the chief of the fire department at all reasonable times, and it is made a part of his duties to inspect such stations at least once a year. It provides that the commission may require such inspection and approval by the chief of the fire department as to fire and explosion hazard before granting any license; that no such gasoline filling station shall be constructed or maintained except in pursuance of a license; and fixes a license fee of $10 a year for each filling standard used at each drive-in filling station, and $15 for each single filling standard used at each curb filling station.

The city of Bay City is incorporated under Pub. Acts 1909, No. 279; sections 3304-3341, Comp. Laws 1915. Its charter is not before us. We assume the city has the power and authority which it is authorized by statute to exercise. It may lay and collect taxes and excises. It may regulate trade, and enforce local police regulations not in conflict with general laws. Section 3307, Comp. Laws 1915. It may regulate, restrict and limit the number and location of oil and gasoline stations. Pub. Acts 1925, No. 358.

The constitutional provision requiring a uniform rule of taxation excepts property paying specific taxes. Walcott v. People, 17 Mich. 68. In Kitson v. Ann Arbor, 26 Mich. 325, license fees were imposed by the municipality upon the operation of saloons. It was contended the ordinance must rest upon the foundation that it exacted no more than might be reasonably required for the expense of its enforcement. It is said: ‘The principles already settled in regard to the lawful means of raising revenue, seem to me decisive. * * * There is no limitation preventing the demand of such license fees as may be deemed reasonable. There is nothing in the charter confining the levying of such charges to the expense of the papers, or to the sum required to enforce the licensing ordinances. Unless the revenue is to be raised entirely by ad valorem taxes on property, I can see no legal objection to such exactions by way of license charges as the city may see fit to demand, so long as they are not so grossly unreasonable and oppressive as to render the ordinances void on that ground.’

In Youngblood v. Sexton, 32 Mich. 406, 20 Am. Rep. 654, it was held that local specific taxes may be authorized. The express language of the Home Rule Charter law permits the collection of taxes and excises. The city has ample authority to pass a by-law or ordinance enforcing specific taxes upon the particular...