State v. Lee
| Decision Date | 19 December 1893 |
| Citation | 18 S.E. 713,113 N.C. 681 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. LEE. |
"Peddler"—Selling by Sample.
A person who sells stoves or ranges by sample and taking orders is not a "peddler, "and is not subject to the tax of $50 annually "on every itinerant person or company peddling clocks, stoves or ranges, " provided for by Acts 1893, c. 294, § 28.
Appeal from superior court, Yancey county; Boykin, Judge.
E. N. S. Lee was acquitted of the charge of peddling stoves or ranges without paying the tax or obtaining the license required by Acts 1893, c. 294, and the state appeals. Affirmed.
The Attorney General, for the State.
G. S. Ferguson, for appellee.
Whether the taxing of the occupation of selling "clocks, stoves or ranges" by sample, under the state of facts found by the special verdict in this case, and whether to do so would be an interference with interstate commerce, is an interesting question. There are cases which would seem to indicate that the state could lawfully collect such tax upon the facts here found to exist, if the legislature had seen fit to impose it. Machine Co. v. Gage, 100 U. S. 676; State v. French, 109 N. C. 722, 14 S. E. 383. But we need not, and do not, pass upon that point.
The tax, for the failure to pay which the defendant is on trial, is that which is levied by section 28, c. 294, Acts 1893, which provides: The special verdict finds that the defendant sold the ranges by a sample range which he carried around in his wagon, and that he "did not sell any sample range." The tax is laid only on "peddling, " and the defendant did not peddle his ranges. The usual and ordinary signification of that word indicates the occupation of an itinerant vendor of goods, who sells and delivers the identical goods he carries with him, and not the business of selling by sample, and taking orders for goods to be thereafter delivered, and to be paid for wholly, or in part, upon their subsequent delivery. Webster's International Dictionary defines "peddle: " Also: "To travel about with wares for sale; to go from place to place, or from house to house, for the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Wrought Iron Range Co. v. Campen
... ... The complaint is as follows: ... "The ... plaintiff complains of the defendant, and alleges: ... (1) ... That the Wrought Iron Range Company, the plaintiff in this ... case, is a corporation duly organized and created under the ... laws of the state of Missouri, with its general offices ... located in the city of St. Louis, Mo., in which city and ... state it also has a factory, in which are manufactured all ... the ranges sold by its traveling salesmen throughout the ... United States, and the plaintiff has been engaged during the ... ...
-
Wrought-Iron Range Co. v. Carver
...that neither of these cases decides the question or sustains the contention of plaintiff as to interstate commerce. The case of State v. Lee, supra, as was that State v. Gibbs, was put upon the definition of "peddler." And the court then held that the term "peddler" did not include a party ......
-
Potts v. State
...for goods for future delivery, to be paid for wholly or in part upon subsequent delivery, is not a peddler. State v. Lee, 113 N. C. 681, 18 S. E. 713, 37 Am. St. Rep. 649; State v. Gibbs, 115 N. C. 700, 20 S. E. 172; Ballou v. State, 87 Ala. 144, 6 South. 393. In the case of Emmons v. City ......
-
Swift & Co. v. State
...for the purpose of selling it." 3 Bouv. Law Dict. 2548. The following terse definition is from a headnote in State v. Lee, 113 N. C. 681, 18 S. E. 713, 37 Am. St. Rep. 649: "A `peddler' is one [an itinerant vendor of goods] who sells and delivers the identical goods he carries about with hi......