Towns v. Sioux City
| Decision Date | 08 March 1932 |
| Docket Number | 41130 |
| Citation | 241 N.W. 658,214 Iowa 76 |
| Parties | R. L. TOWNS et al., Appellees, v. CITY OF SIOUX CITY, Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Woodbury District Court.--ROBERT H. MUNGER, Judge.
An action in equity to enjoin the appellant, defendant City of Sioux City, from enforcing an ordinance which requires license fees from operators of motor vehicles for hire. The district court enjoined the enforcement of the ordinance and the City appeals.
Reversed.
Ralph A. Oliver, A. O. Jepson, and Milchrist, Schmidt, Marshall & Jepson, for appellant.
Hays Baron & Mathews, for appellees.
ALBERT J. WAGNER, C. J., and STEVENS, FAVILLE, DE GRAFF, KINDIG MORLING, GRIMM, and EVANS, JJ., concur.
One R. L. Towns is engaged in the operation of two motor vehicles as a common carrier of freight for hire in the City of Sioux City, not between fixed termini or regular routes. The other plaintiff is an association of transfer men (incorporated) with nine members, all of whom are engaged in a business similar to that of Towns.
The ordinance in controversy was passed by the defendant City in 1911. It consists of 37 sections, many of which are obsolete, and others which have been repealed by later enactments of the legislature. The title to the act is "An ordinance licensing and regulating hacks, carriages, taxicabs, automobiles and other vehicles kept for hire."
Section 2 provides who may obtain licenses; section 3 applies to license plates; section 4 to the lights and numbers; section 5 for owner's liability for violation of this ordinance; section 6 for badges to be worn on the caps of drivers; section 7 for transfer of licenses; section 8 for license fees. Subdivision 10 of section 8 reads as follows:
"All automobiles that shall operate within the city for the conveyance of passengers, or for the conveyance of baggage, goods, wares or merchandise for hire or reward, shall be charged for license each the sum of fifteen dollars per annum."
Section 11 provides that each driver of an automobile which shall be run for the conveyance of passengers or for the conveyance of baggage, goods, wares or merchandise, for hire or reward within the city, shall be charged for license two dollars per annum.
Subdivision 14 of the above section provides that motor-driven vans shall each be charged a license of eighteen dollars per annum.
Section 10 provides the rates or fares to be charged by each of the various kinds of conveyances.
Other sections of this ordinance have no bearing on the question raised.
Aside from the question hereafter referred to, as to whether this ordinance was a license measure or a tax measure, it must be conceded that the city had the power to pass said ordinance under section 754, Code, 1897, which is now section 5970, Code, 1931, reading as follows:
The right of the city to levy a tax as provided in the above-quoted section was taken away by legislation in 1919. It is insisted, however, that the right to license provided for in the above section was taken away by reason of the enactment of Chapter 129 of the laws of the 43d G.A., which appears in the present code as Chapter 252-C1. This act is too long to set out in full in this opinion, but it is entitled:
"An act to provide for the supervision and regulation, by the board of railroad commissioners of this state, of all persons engaged in the public transportation of property for hire by motor vehicles not operating between fixed termini nor over a regular route and for the enforcement of this act and punishment for the violation of the provisions thereof and to provide for the levy and collection of a permit fee to be paid by such truck operators for the administration and enforcement of the provisions thereof."
The following sections are a part thereof:
Section 5 governs charges to be made for transportation of property.
Section 6 reads as follows:
"It is hereby declared unlawful for any truck operator to operate or furnish public service within this state without first having obtained from the commission a permit as hereinafter defined."
Section 7 provides for an application for such permit; sections 8 and 9 for the issuance thereof and the fee to be paid, which is fixed at five dollars; section 10 provides that on the failure to pay the fee the permit may be revoked.
Sections 11 and 12 read as follows:
Section 13 makes said permit personal property and transferable; section 14 provides that before a permit is issued, the applicant must put up an insurance policy or surety bond, etc.; section 15 provides for a revocation of the permit under certain circumstances; section 16 provides for the equipment of the truck and the inspection thereof; section 17 provides the qualifications of a driver of a truck and that he must have a regular chauffeur's license; section 18 provides that the width over all on said truck shall not exceed eight feet; section 19 has various provisions as to signal equipment, lights, etc.; section 20 provides for a rear vision mirror; section 21 for the reporting of accidents; section 22 for distinctive markings of trucks; section 23 provides that the commission shall promulgate safety rules and regulations necessary to govern the operation and control of motor trucks on the highways, and the maintenance and inspection thereof; section 24 provides for the revocation and cancellation of the permit under certain conditions; section 26 provides punishment for violation of any of the orders, rules, decisions or regulations, direction, demands or requirements of the commission, etc.; section 27 provides for the independence of each section in the act in case of a constitutional attack.
It is the claim of the appellees that by the passage of the Act of the 43d G.A. just described, the power of the city to license, under section 5970 first set out, was nullified by implication; hence this ordinance is void.
It is conceded this ordinance is limited in its operation to the purlieus of the municipality of Sioux City; in other words it is...
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