New Orleans City Co v. City of New Orleans
Decision Date | 29 February 1892 |
Citation | 12 S.Ct. 406,36 L.Ed. 121,143 U.S. 192 |
Parties | NEW ORLEANS CITY & L. R. CO. v. CITY OF NEW ORLEANS |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
STATEMENT BY MR. JUSTICE GRAY.
This was a summary proceeding by the city of New Orleans against the New Orleans City & Lake Railroad Company in a civil district court of the parish of Orleans, to collect a license tax of $2,500 for the year 1887, imposed lby an ordinance of the city, pursuant to the statute of Louisiana of 1886, No. 101, § 8, which provided Acts La. 1886, pp. 165, 175.
The defendant admitted that its ammual gross receipts were more than $500,000; but contended that the statute and ordi- nance, so far as they affected the defendant, were unconstitutional and void, as impairing the obligation of the following contracts:
On October 2, 1879, the city of New Orleans sold to the New Orleans City Railroad Company, for the price of $63,000, the right of way and franchises for running certain lines of street railroad for carrying passengers within the city until January 1, 1906, 'to have and to hold the said right of way and franchises of the said railroad lines unto the said New Orleans City Railroad Company, its successors and assigns, transferees and vendees, for the full term and period hereinabove fixed;' and the company agreed to construct its railroad, to keep the streets in repair, and to comply with regulations as to the style and running of cars, the motive power, and the rates of fare, as therein provided, and to 'annually pay into the city treasury, upon the assessed value of said road and fixtures, the annual tax levied upon real estate, the value of said road and fixtures to be assessed by the usual mode of assessment;' and the city bound itself 'not to grant, during the perion for which said franchises are sold, a right of way to any other railroad company upon the streets through which said right of way is hereby sold, unless by mutual agreement between the city and the purchaser or purchasers of these franchises.'
On June 9, 1883, the liquidating commissioners of the New Orleans City Railroad Company, whose charter had expired, sold and transferred all that company's real and personal property, movable and immovable, right of way, and franchises for the privilege of running street-cars, to the defendant, by a contract by which, among other things, 'said New Orleans City Railroad Company, having, according to law, paid its state and city licenses for 1883, amounting to twenty-five hundred dollars each, hereby transfers the unexpired term thereof, extending to Cecember 31, 1883, to the present purchaser, the New Orleans City and Lake Pailroad Company.'
Judgment was given in favor of the city, and was affirmed on appeal by the superme court of Louisiana. 40 La. Ann. 587, 4 South. Rep. 512. The defendant sued out this writ of error.
C. F. Buck, for plaintiff in error.
W. D. Summerville, for defendant in error.
Mr. Justice GRAY, after stating the facts as above,...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Union & Planters' Bank of Memphis v. City of Memphis
... ... City of Memphis v ... Hernando Ins. Co., 6 Baxt. 527; Union Bank of ... Tennessee v. State, 9 Yerg. 490. The case of New ... Orleans C. & L.R. Co. v. City of New Orleans, 143 U.S ... 192, 12 Sup.Ct. 406, 36 L.Ed. 121, is not, as we understand ... it, an authority against this ... ...
-
Burnet v. Coronado Oil Gas Co
...Ed. 1154, qualifying Runkle v. United States, 122 U. S. 543, 555, 7 S. Ct. 1141, 30 L. Ed. 1167; New Orleans City & Lake R. Co. v. New Orleans, 143 U. S. 192, 195, 12 S. Ct. 406, 36 L. Ed. 121, qualifying Gordon v. Appeal Tax Court, 3 How. 133, 11 L. Ed. 529; Philadelphia & S. Mail S. S. Co......
-
Puget Sound Power Light Co v. City of Seattle, Wash 12 8212 15, 1934
...does not limit it. See Wiggins Ferry Co. v. East St. Louis, 107 U.S. 365, 2 S.Ct. 257, 27 L.Ed. 419; New Orleans City & Lake R. Co. v. New Orleans, 143 U.S. 192, 12 S.Ct. 406, 36 L.Ed. 121; Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. City Council of Charleston, 153 U.S. 692, 14 S.Ct. 1094, 38 L.Ed. 871; ......
-
City of St. Louis v. United Rys. Co. of St. Louis
...to impose the license tax under the power conferred for that purpose." And the court, citing with approval Railway Co. v. New Orleans, 143 U. S. 192, 12 Sup. Ct. 406, 36 L. Ed. 121, says (210 U. S. 280, 28 Sup. Ct. 634, 52 L. Ed. "Because a street railway company has agreed to pay for the u......