Immigration Soc. Of Albemarle County v. Commonwealth

• Decision Date: 22 September 1904
• Citation: 48 S.E. 509,103 Va. 46
• Parties: IMMIGRATION SOC. OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY v. COMMONWEALTH.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

48 S.E. 509

103 Va. 46

IMMIGRATION SOC. OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY

v.COMMONWEALTH.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Sept. 22, 1904.

CRIMINAL LAW—SALE OP LAND.AS AGENT WITHOUT A LICENSE—STATUTES—CONSTRUCTION.

1. Act March 5, 1894 (Acts 1893-94, pp. 723, 724, c. 620) § 1, provides for the incorporation of societies to advertise for sale, and to sell or lease, the lands of their members. Section 2 provides that societies organized thereunder may be appointed agents or attorneys in fact to sell, lease, or exchange lands. By section 3 they are exempted from the payment of a license tax. Act April 16, 1903, § 54 (Acts 1902-1904, pp. 155, 188, c. 148), makes it an indictable offense for any firm or corporation to do business as a land agent, as therein defined, without the payment of a license tax. Held, that a society organized under Act March 5, 1894. is indictable under Act April 16, 1903, where it offered for sale, as land agent, without a license, for compensation, lands not owned by members of the society.

2. The argument of inconvenience, absurdity, injustice, or prejudice to the public interests

¶ 2. See Statutes, vol. 44, Cent. Dig. § 263 may be considered, in construing a statute, when its language is ambiguous.

Error to Corporation Court of Charlottesville.

The Immigration Society of Albemarle County was convicted of unlawfully selling and offering to sell land without a license, and brings error. Affirmed.

D. Harman and R. A. Watson, for plaintiff in error.

The Attorney General, William A. Anderson, and J. S. Eggleston, for the Commonwealth.

BUCHANAN, J. The Immigration Society of Albemarle County was indicted in the corporation court of the city of Charlottesville, at the January term, 1904, for unlawfully selling and offering to sell land in the city of Charlottesville without having first obtained a license therefor. Upon the trial of the cause, a jury having been waived, and all matters of law and fact having been submitted to the court, the land company was found guilty of the offense charged, and a fine of $100 assessed against it. To that judgment this writ of error was awarded.

As the decision of all the assignments of error depends upon the construction of the act under which the plaintiff in error was organized and did business, they will be considered together.

It appears from the evidence—indeed, it is admitted—that the defendant company, within eight months prior to the finding of the indictment, did, in the city of Charlottesville, where its principal office was located, offer for sale, as land agent, for compensation, lands not owned by members of the land company. It was therefore guilty of violating section 54 of chapter 148 of the act of assembly approved April 16, 1903, entitled "An act to raise revenue for the support of the government, " etc. Acts 1902-1904, pp. 155, 188, prohibiting any person, firm, or corporation from doing business as a land agent, as therein defined, without the payment of a license tax, unless, as is contended, the defendant was exempt from the payment of such tax by an act of Assembly approved March 5, 1894, entitled "An act to encourage immigration into the commonwealth of Virginia, and to promote the sales of lands within the commonwealth to immigrants" (Acts 1893-94, pp. 723, 724, e. 620), and under which the defendant company was incorporated.

The provisions of the act, so far as they are material to the question under consideration, are as follows:

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, that it shall be lawful for ten or more persons owning land in any county of the state to make, sign, seal, acknowledge and put to record in the clerk's office of the court of such county a paper writing in form or to the effect as follows:

" 'We, the undersigned, owners of land in the county of ——, in the state of Vir-ginia, do hereby form an immigration society to be known as and bear the name of the immigration society of —— county, Vir-

ginia. The object for which said society is formed is to advertise for sale and to sell or lease the lands of the members of said society, in such manner and upon such terms as may be provided by the constitution and by-laws of the society adopted by the members thereof; the officers of said society, to manage its affairs for the first year and until their successors are elected and qualified, will be a president, a secretary, a treasurer and a board of directors, which board shall consist of not less than five persons nor more than nine, as the said society at the time of its organization shall determine. The principal office of said society will be at ——, in said county.

"Sec. 2. When such writing shall have been so signed, sealed, acknowledged and recorded in the county court clerk's office, and a duly certified copy thereof lodged in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth for recordation, and another such copy deposited with the Commissioner of Agriculture at Richmond, the persons who signed, sealed and acknowledged it, and all others who may thereafter be associated with them, shall be a body corporate and politic under the name set forth in said writing, and as such may have a common seal; may contract and...