Mayor v. Mcwilliams & Co.

• Decision Date: 31 January 1874
• Citation: 52 Ga. 251
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Parties: Mayor and Council of The City of Rome, plaintiff in error. v. McWilliams & Company et al., defendants in error.

52 Ga. 251

Mayor and Council of The City of Rome, plaintiff in error. v. McWilliams & Company et al., defendants in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, January Term, 1874.)

Constitutional law. Tax. License. Municipal corporations. Fine. Before Judge Underwood. Floyd county. At Chambers. March 20th, 1874.

*McWilliams & Company et al., merchants, S. Holmes et al., clerks, John W. Janes, physician, R. I. Hampton, dentist, Benjamin Burns et al., contractors and mechanics, Hal-stead Smith et al., lawyers, William A. Reckling, photographer, Woodruff & Morgan et al., cotton buyers, A. S. Caldwell, insurance agent, John C. Printup, railroad agent, and J. J. Vandiver, coal seller, all residents of and doing business in the city of Rome, filed their bill against the mayor and council of said city, making the following case:

Your orators charge that the mayor and council of the city of Rome, under and by virtue of an ordinance passed on the 11th day of March, 1874, and an amendment thereto, passed by said body on the 13th day of March, 1874, require each and all of your orators, on or before the 17th day of March, 1874, to register their names, business or occupations, in the office of the clerk of the city council of said city, and to pay to the said clerk a fee of fifty cents for issuing a license to each of your orators, and to pay the following sums for license to follow their respective occupations in said city, viz:

                -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                |Merchants, traders, factors, commission merchants, or those engaged in   |$10|
                |selling goods, wares, produce or merchandise, whose average stock in     |00 |
                |trade is under $1,000 00                                                 |   |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |From $1,000 00 to $10,000 00                                             |20 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |From $10,000 00 to $25,000 00                                            |30 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |All those averaging over $25,000 00                                      |50 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |Contractors                                                              |25 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |Clerks, book-keepers and railroad and steamboat ticket agents, insurance |5  |
                |agents and telegraph operators, receiving a salary or wages of $600 00   |00 |
                |per annum, or under                                                      |   |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |And those over $600 00                                                   |10 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |Cotton buyers, each                                                      |25 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |Coal yards or agencies                                                   |25 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |Ice houses or agencies                                                   |10 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                |-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---|
                |Lumber merchants                                                         |20 |
                |                                                                         |00 |
                -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                

That said mayor and council, in addition to said license taxes, have also levied a tax of one-half of one per cent. uponthe gross sales of all merchants and commission merchants in *said city, and require returns of said sales to be made quarterly.

That said mayor and council, by said ordinance, require all artists, photographers, agents, lawyers, doctors and dentists, to make a quarterly return of their gross receipts, and to pay a tax of one-half of one per cent. thereon, the first quarter beginning on the 1st day of January, 1874, and ending on the 1st day of April, 1874; and insurance agents are required by the like authority to make like quarterly returns of their receipts, and to pay a tax one-half of one per cent. upon their gross receipts.

A copy of said city ordinance is hereto attached, and marked exhibit "A."

That said license and special taxes imposed upon your orators, and said taxes on gross receipts and on the gross sales of your orators, are unequal, unjust, not uniform, and that said taxes are imposed without authority of law, and that the said mayor and council have no authority to levy and collect the same.

That the said mayor and council have exempted from the payment of said license and registration taxes, and from the payment of said tax on gross sales and receipts, all carpenters and mechanics, and all other citizens not included in said ordinance; and that said exemption is unjust and illegal, and renders said taxes void, because not equal and uniform on all the citizens of said city.

That said license taxes and fees are not taxes upon property, and are neither ad valorem nor uniform, and are contrary to law, illegal and void; and that said tax of one-half of one per cent. upon the gross sales and receipts of your orators is an additional tax to the ad valorem tax upon your orators' property in said city, and is not an uniform nor ad valorem tax, and that no tax is imposed upon the gross sales or receipts of mechanics and other citizens of the city, and that said tax upon the gross sales and receipts of your orators is illegal and void.

That under and by virtue of the said pretended ordi nance, *the said mayor and council have required your orators to make returns by the 1st day of April, 1874, or within ten days thereafter, of all the sales made by your orators, and also of all their receipts since the 1st day of January, 1874, and to pay a tax of one-half of one per cent upon said receipts and sales.

That they are ready and willing to pay all the taxes that may be legally imposed by said mayor and council upon all real and personal property owned by your orators in said city, when said taxes are assessed upon their said property ad valorem, uniformly, and equally, on all the property in said city, and do hereby tender and offer to pay the same in manner and form as aforesaid.

That the said mayor and council have enacted an ordinance whereby they threaten, notwithstanding the protest of your orators, to enforce the payment of all said illegal taxes and fees by issuing fi. fas. against the property of your orators, and selling the same, and also to inflict fines, penalties and forfeitures upon them for failure to pay said illegal fees and taxes, as will appear by reference to exhibit "A."

That if said mayor and counsel are permitted to enforce the payment of said taxes, licenses and fees, it will ruin the business of your orators, and will inflict irreparable injury upon them; that many of your orators are poor men and will be compelled to abandon their business in said city if their business is burdened with said excessive, unequal, unjust and illegal taxes, license fees, fines and forfeitures.

That the enforcement of said illegal taxes and fees, fines and forfeitures, will cast a cloud over the title of your orators to their real estate owned in said city; and that if said tax fi. fas. are issued, and said fines are imposed by the said mayor and council, it will give rise to a multiplicity of law suits between your orators and other citizens of said city and the said mayor and council. Wherefore, they pray the writ of injunction.

The bill was subsequently amended as follows:

And your orators do charge that each cotton buyer is required *by said ordinance to pay said license tax.

That your orators, Frank Woodruff and Samuel Morgan, are partners, carrying on the business of cotton buying in said city, under the name and style of Woodruff & Morgan, and that said mayor and council require each of your orators to pay a license, and will not issue a license to the firm of Woodruff & Morgan, but that said defendant issues a license to firms or merchants, contractors and others, upon the payment of a single license fee by said firms, and that said defandants do not require a separate license fee from the members of firms engaged in other business, and that said discrimination renders said license tax unequal, unjust, illegal and void.

Your orators further charge and show unto your honor that there is located in said city a rolling mill, which manufactures annually a large amount of iron, nails, spikes, and railroad iron, and sells the same; a foundry and machine shop, and a stove and hollow-ware manufacturing establishment, manufacturing and selling large quantities of stoves, car wheels and axles, and other iron products; a mill manufacturing and selling large quantities of meal and flour; a shoe factory and fur-niture manufactories, all manufacturing and selling annually in said city large amounts of manufactured articles, and that by said ordinance, as amended since the filing of this bill, no tax is imposed upon the sales of said...