Callaham v. Marshall

210 F. 230, 127 C.C.A. 48, 4 Alaska Fed. 172, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1992
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 5, 1914
DocketNos. 2305, 2308
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 210 F. 230 (Callaham v. Marshall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Callaham v. Marshall, 210 F. 230, 127 C.C.A. 48, 4 Alaska Fed. 172, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1992 (9th Cir. 1914).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge.

These cases have been argued and submitted together and depend upon the question whether or not the appellant and plaintiff in error was liable to pay a poll tax for the year 1913 under and by virtue of an act of the Legislature of Alaska, passed, approved, and effective May 1, 1913 (chapter 54 of the Laws of 1913). That legislative body was created by act of Congress of August 24, 1912, c. 387, 37 St.Lg. 512, entitled “An act to create a legislative assembly in the territory of Alaska, to confer legislative power thereon, and for other purposes,” the third section of which (48 U.S.C.A. §§ 23, 24, 80) Js as follows:

“Sec. 3. Constitution and Laws of United States Extended.- — That the Constitution of the United States, and all the laws thereof which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said territory as elsewhere in the United States; that all the laws of the United States heretofore passed establishing the executive and judicial departments in Alaska shall continue in full force and effect until amended or repealed by act of Congress ; that except as herein provided all laws now in force in Alaska shall continue in full force and effect until altered, amended, or repealed by Congress’ or by the Legislature: Provided, that the authority herein granted to the Legislature to alter, amend, modify, and repeal laws in force in Alaska shall not extend to the customs, internal revenue, postal, or other general laws of the United States or to the game, fish, and fur seal laws and laws relating to fur-bearing animals of the United States applicable to Alaska, or to the laws of the United States providing for taxes on business and trade, or to the act entitled ‘An act to provide for the construction and maintenance of roads, the establishment and maintenance of schools, and the care and support of insane persons in the district of Alaska, and for other purposes/ approved January twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and five, and the several acts amendatory thereof: Provided, further, that this provision shall not operate to prevent the Legislature from imposing other and [175]*175additional taxes or licenses. And the Legislature shall pass no law depriving the judges and officers of the district court of Alaska of any authority, jurisdiction, or function exercised by like judges or officers of district courts of the United States.”

This act of Congress provided that the legislative power and authority of the territory shall be vested in a Legislature, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives, provided for the membership of each House, prescribed various limitations and restrictions upon the legislative power, etc., and by section 11 (48 U.S.C.A. §§ 82, 83) provided as follows:

“Sec. 11. Legislator Shall Not Hold Other Office.— That no member of the Legislature shall hold or be appointed to any office which has been created, or the salary or emoluments of which have been increased, while he was a member, during the term for which he was elected and for one year after the expiration of such term; and no person holding a commission or appointment under the United States shall be a member of the Legislature or shall hold any office under the government of said territory.”

The act of the legislative assembly bearing upon the present case is as follows:

“Be it enacted by the Legislature of the territory of Alaska:

“Section 1. That there is hereby made, imposed and levied upon each male person, except soldiers, sailors in the United States navy or revenue cutter service, volunteer firemen, paupers, insane persons, or territorial charges, within the territory of Alaska or the waters thereof, over the age of twenty-one years, and under the age of fifty years, an annual tax in the sum of four dollars to be paid and collected in the manner provided in the following sections of this act.

“Sec. 2. That the commissioner of each precinct in the territory of Alaska, shall, on or before the first day of March in each year, set down upon such blanks as the treasurer of the territory of Alaska may prescribe, the names of all persons residing within his precinct subject to the tax herein provided for; one of such blanks shall be transmitted by the commissioner to the treasurer of the [176]*176territory and the other shall be retained by him. At the time of transmitting one copy of said duplicate list of names of the persons subject to the tax herein provided for within his precinct, the commissioner shall cause to be published in at least one newspaper of general circulation published within his precinct or if there be no newspaper then by posting in five public places within his precinct a notice setting forth that the poll tax provided for in this act is due and payable between certain dates and that the payment thereof will become delinquent as provided in this act, and warning all persons to pay the same, and that in case of failure to pay the same, penalties, as herein provided for, will be imposed and it shall be the duty of every person liable to pay such tax, to pay the same to the commissioner within the time in which such notice specifies.

“Sec. 3. The tax herein provided for shall be paid between the first Monday in the month of April and the first Monday in the month of August in each year.

“Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the commissioner to receipt to each person upon payment of the poll tax herein provided for and the receipt so delivered shall be the only evidence of payment.

“Sec. 5. Every person indebted to one who neglects or refuses, after demand, to pay a poll tax becomes liable therefor and must pay the same for such other person after service upon him by the commissioner of a notice in writing stating the name of such person.

“Sec. 6. Every person paying the poll tax of another may deduct the same from any indebtedness to such other person. The commissioner must demand payment of poll tax from every person liable therefor and on the neglect or refusal of such person to pay the same, he must collect by seizure and sale of any personal property owned by such person, and any property thus seized shall be sold as provided by law for the sale of personal property on execution except that three days’ notice of the time and place of the sale shall be sufficient.

“Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of the commissioner to collect and enforce the collection of all unpaid taxes by giving notice in writing to such delinquent, personally or by [177]*177mail, and such delinquent shall pay a penalty of one dollar in addition to such tax.

“Sec. 8. The territorial treasurer must, before the first Monday in March in each year, deliver to each commissioner in the territory of Alaska blank poll tax receipts, in book form with stubs numbered the same as the receipts, of one hundred in each book a sufficient number for each commissioner. The form of such receipts and stubs shall be prescribed by the territorial treasurer and shall be approved by the Governor of the territory.

“Sec. 9. The commissioner shall, before entering upon the performance of his duties as herein prescribed, execute a bond to the territory of Alaska in the sum to be fixed by the .territorial treasurer which shall not be less than double the amount which will probably come into his hands under this act during any one year.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
210 F. 230, 127 C.C.A. 48, 4 Alaska Fed. 172, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1992, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/callaham-v-marshall-ca9-1914.