Olan Mills, Inc. v. Panama City
| Decision Date | 09 March 1955 |
| Citation | 78 So.2d 561 |
| Parties | OLAN MILLS, Incorporated, Appellant, v. PANAMA CITY, a municipal corporation, organized under the state laws ofFlorida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Mercer P. Spear, Panama City, for appellant.
J. M. & H. P. Sapp, Panama City, for appellee.
This is an appeal from a final decree sustaining a motion to dismiss a complaint for injunction and assessing costs against the plaintiff.
The complaint is patterned after that which appears at length in Olan Mills, Inc. of Alabama v. City of Tallahassee, Fla.1949, 43 So.2d 521. In most respects the allegations of the complaints are identical. The only substantial difference in the case presented in Olan Mills, Inc., of Alabama v. City of Tallahassee and the case now before us is the amount of the tax imposed by the municipal ordinance on the agents of appellant.
Two primary questions are presented here. The first is whether the business conducted by the appellant as alleged in the complaint could be properly classified as inter-state commerce. This must be answered in the affirmative on the authority of Olan Mills, Inc., of Alabama v. City of Tallahassee, supra.
The second proposition presented is whether the tax imposed by the Panama City ordinance constitutes an undue burden on inter-state commerce and consequently is violative of the provisions of Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3, of the Constitution of the United States. The Panama City ordinance imposes a tax of $25 per year upon each agent soliciting business for foreign firms or corporations where the principal pays no license tax in the city. The ordinance also imposes a license tax of $25 per week on itinerant photographers whereas the tax imposed on photographers residing in the city is $15 per year. While the amounts involved in the Panama City ordinance and the Tallahassee ordinance are slightly different, the principles upon which we held the tax imposed by the Tallahassee ordinance amounted to an undue burden upon inter-state commerce are equally applicable to the Panama City ordinance. In the Tallahassee case (43 So.2d 525), with reference thereto, we said, 'Such a differential between a tax imposed upon the local photographers and that imposed upon the itinerant photographers who are engaged in the same occupation and in interstate commerce is palpably discriminatory, unreasonable, if indeed it is not prohibitive, and clearly places an undue burden on interstate commerce.' The above language is clearly applicable to the Panama City ordinance under the principle announced in that case...
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State v. Morales
...and its enforcement would result in irreparable injury to property or personal rights. See, e.g., Olan Mills, Inc. v. Panama City, 78 So.2d 561, 562 (Fla.1955) (reversing the dismissal of a suit to enjoin enforcement of an ordinance taxing transient photographers); Norcisa v. Board of Selec......
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Olan Mills v. Town of Kingstree
...place a direct tax upon the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce.' Other decisions of similar holdings are: Olan Mills, Inc. v. Panama City, Fla.1955, 78 So.2d 561; Olan Mills, Inc. v. City of Nicholasville, Kentucky et al., Ky.1955, 280 S.W.2d 522; Olan Mills, Inc. v. City of Cape ......
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City of Watertown v. Hagy
...v. City of Barre, 123 Vt. 478, 194 A.2d 385; Olan Mills Incorporated v. City of Tallahassee, Fla., 43 So.2d 521; Olan Mills, Incorporated v. Panama City, Fla., 78 So.2d 561; Olan Mills, Incorporated v. City of Tallahassee, Fla., 100 So.2d 164. Also see Annot. in 7 A.L.R.2d, Regulation of pr......
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Olan Mills, Inc. v. City of Tallahassee
...validity of municipal license taxes. See Olan Mills, Inc., of Alabama v. City of Tallahassee, Fla., 43 So.2d 521, and Olan Mills, Inc., v. Panama City, Fla., 78 So.2d 561. Appellant's method of doing business has not changed since these cases were decided. It still sends out solicitors for ......