White v. City of Decatur, 8 Div. 463.

• Decision Date: 15 December 1932
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 463.
• Parties: WHITE v. CITY OF DECATUR.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

144 So. 873

225 Ala. 646

WHITE v. CITY OF DECATUR.

8 Div. 463.

Supreme Court of Alabama

December 15, 1932

Certiorari to Court of Appeals.

Petition of Gilbert White for certiorari to the Court of Appeals to review and revise the judgment and decision of that court in White v. City of Decatur, 144 So. 872.

Writ denied.

ANDERSON C.J., dissenting.

Watts &amp White, of Huntsville, for petitioner.

Tennis Tidwell, of Decatur, opposed.

BROWN J.

The city of Decatur, a municipal corporation, located wholly in Morgan county, recovered a judgment against the petitioner appellant in the Court of Appeals, for money alleged to be due as a license or privilege tax under an ordinance of said city duly adopted, levying such tax on businesses and occupations conducted and carried on within the corporate limits of said city, and a like tax on businesses and occupations conducted outside of the city limits, but within its police jurisdiction, the tax on businesses and occupations last mentioned being equal to 50 per cent. of the tax on such businesses and occupations conducted within the corporate limits.

The business and occupation engaged in by the petitioner was carried on at Whiteside in Limestone county, across the Tennessee river from Decatur, but within three miles of the corporate limits.

The city of Decatur has a population of more than 6,000 inhabitants, and it contends that the authority for the levy as against the petitioner is found in the provisions of section 1954 of the Code of 1923, and General Act No. 580 (Gen. Acts 1927, p. 674), entitled "An act to authorize all cities and towns within the State of Alabama to fix and collect licenses for any business, trade or profession done outside the corporate limits but within the police jurisdiction thereof," approved September 6, 1927.

Said section 1954, Code, provides: "The police jurisdiction in cities having six thousand or more inhabitants shall cover all adjoining territory within three miles of the corporate limits, and in cities having less than six thousand inhabitants, and in towns, such police jurisdiction shall extend also to the adjoining territory within a mile and a half of the corporate limits of such city or town. Ordinances of a city or town enforcing police or sanitary regulations and prescribing fines and penalties for violations thereof, shall have force and effect in the limits of the city or town and in the police jurisdiction thereof and on any property or rights of way belonging to the city or town." [Italics supplied.]

The act provides: "That any city or town within the state of Alabama may fix and collect licenses for any business, trade or profession done within the police jurisdiction of such city or town and without the corporate limits thereof; provided, however, that the amount of such licenses shall not be more than one-half the amount charged and collected as a license for like businesses, trade or profession done within the corporate limits of such city, fees and penalties excluded," etc. General Acts 1927, No. 580, page 674.

It is well settled that the power of the Legislature, except as restrained by the Constitution, is supreme in the enactment of statutory law and in the creation of subordinate governmental agencies, and in prescribing their powers and duties (State ex rel. Brooks v. Gullatt et al., 210 Ala. 452, 98 So. 373); that the Legislature may authorize a municipal corporation, under the...