State v. Wholesale & Retail Credit Ass'n
| Decision Date | 17 January 1918 |
| Docket Number | 3 Div. 347 |
| Citation | 77 So. 735,201 Ala. 209 |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE v. WHOLESALE & RETAIL CREDIT ASS'N. |
Rehearing Denied Feb. 7, 1918
Appeal from Circuit Court, Montgomery County; Leon McCord, Judge.
Action by the State of Alabama against the Wholesale & Retail Credit Association to recover license. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and rendered.
W.T Seibels and C.P. McIntyre, both of Montgomery, for the State.
Steiner Crum & Weil and J.L. Holloway, all of Montgomery, for appellee.
Subdivision 22 of section 2361 of the Code of 1907 provides:
"Each person, firm, or corporation, or association of persons inquiring into and reporting upon the credit and standing of persons in this state, shall pay to the state annually the sum of three hundred dollars, and the payment of this license in any one county shall be sufficient, and shall not be required in any other county in the state."
While the Act of 1915, p. 499, § 1, subdivision 31, says:
"Each person, firm or corporation, or association whose principal business is inquiring into and reporting upon the credit and standing of persons in this state, shall pay to the state a license of three hundred dollars, and shall also pay a license of fifty dollars to each county in which such person, firm, corporation or association maintains an office or established place of business, except that persons, firms associations or corporations inquiring into and reporting to retail dealers upon the credit and standing of individuals shall not be required to pay this license."
We think that the undisputed evidence brings this appellee within the influence of these statutes, and that the trial court erred in not rendering judgment for the appellant for the tax claimed. The proof shows that it is such an association as the statute covers; that is that it is an association of persons or corporation "inquiring into and reporting upon the credit and standing of persons in this state." We do not see how the fact that the members received no dividends should remove it from the influence of the statute. It was a corporation organized and chartered for the purpose of inquiring into and reporting upon the credit of persons in the state; it was paid annual sums by the various members for this purpose, and furnished reports as to the standing of persons both within and without the city of Montgomery, and was not...
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