State v. City of Ensley

• Decision Date: 18 January 1905
• Citation: 142 Ala. 661,38 So. 802
• Parties: STATE EX REL. JOHNSON ET AL. v. MAYOR, ETC., OF ENSLEY.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

38 So. 802

142 Ala. 661

STATE EX REL. JOHNSON ET AL. v. MAYOR, ETC., OF ENSLEY.

Supreme Court of Alabama

January 18, 1905

Appeal from City Court of Birmingham; C. W. Ferguson, Judge.

Quo warranto proceedings by the state, on the relation of M. M Johnson and others, against the mayor and city council of Ensley. Petition dismissed, and relators appeal. Affirmed.

The proceedings in this case were instituted by the filing of an information of quo warranto by the state, on the relation of M. M. Johnson and others, residents of the city of Ensley. It was averred in the petition: "That by an act of September 30, 1903 (Local Acts 1903, p. 692), the corporate limits of the city of Ensley were extended so as to include the relators as citizens of said city. That embraced within this territory your relators and petitioners reside. Some of them are engaged in the business of merchandising, and the others in various legitimate pursuits, commensurate with their means, abilities, and tastes. That since the 1st day of January, 1904, and continually up to the time of the filing of this petition, the said city of Ensley, through F. G Fonville, its city tax collector and treasurer, acting under the ordinances of said city, and through the instructions of its mayor and city council, has approached your relators and petitioners for the purpose of collecting a license or privilege tax for the year 1904, which said license or privilege tax had been levied for the current year 1904 upon the various businesses, callings, and vocations carried on in said city of Ensley by the inhabitants thereof, and in some of which your relators and petitioners were and are now engaged, but in the territory herein referred to by the last-mentioned amendment to said charter. That said city of Ensley, through its said treasurer and tax collector, and various policemen in its employ, who assume to act under and by authority of said ordinances of the city of Ensley, and who, within the corporate limits of Ensley, have the authority they assume to exercise over your relators and petitioners, have on divers times and occasions since the 1st day of January, 1904, and up to the time of the filing of this petition threatened your relators and petitioners with arrest for the nonpayment of the license and privilege tax alleged to have been imposed upon your relators by the said city of Ensley, through its mayor and city council. That demand has been made upon your relators and petitioners for the license and privilege tax alleged to have been so imposed, a copy of which ordinance imposing the same is hereto attached, marked 'Exhibit C,' and in so far as it is material hereto is made part hereof, with leave to refer thereto as often as may be necessary. Your relators and petitioners further show, allege, and charge that all the aforesaid acts of the said city of Ensley, F. G. Fonville, as tax collector and treasurer, and all the threats of the policemen of said city of Ensley, in reference to the things herein complained of and the orders of the executive of said city of Ensley to enforce and compel payment of said license tax and privilege tax in the territory referred to, are unlawful, and without authority of law; that all said acts doings, threats, and intimidations, of your relators and petitioners and others for the relief of whom this petition is also filed by the persons, and each and all...