Canova v. Williams

41 Fla. 509
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJune 15, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 41 Fla. 509 (Canova v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Canova v. Williams, 41 Fla. 509 (Fla. 1899).

Opinion

Carter, J.:

On November 20, 1899, upon the petition of plaintiff in error a writ of habeas corpus was issued by the Circuit Court of Duval county, directed to defendant in error, commanding him to produce the body of the petitioner and to certify the cause of his detention. Such proceedings were thereupon had that on the same day the court entered judgment overruling a demurrer to the .return of defendantdn error, denying petitioner’s motion to be discharged, and remanding him to custody. A writ of error to this court was granted for the purpose of reviewing this judgment.

From the pleadings it appears that petitioner is in custody by virtue of a warrant issued by the judge of [511]*511the municipal court of the city of Jacksonville, upon a charge supported by affidavit that petitioner on November 16, 1899, in said city, “did engage in business as a dealer in spirituous, vinous and malt liquors without having first obtained from the city of Jacksonville a license therefor, contrary to” a certain ordinance of the city. Copies of the affidavit, warrant and ordinance are .made parts of the return. The demurrer to the return questions the validity of the ordinance upon certain specified grounds hereinafter more specifically referred to.

The assignments of. error are to the effect that .the court erred in overruling the demurrer, in liot discharging petitioner upon the return, and in remanding him to custody.

The first section of the ordinance provides that from and after October 1, 1899, every person, firm, corporation or association engaged in or managing any business, profession or occupation and having a fixed place of business in the city or required to have a city license shall on or before October 1, 1899, and annually thereafter, and always before engaging in any business, profession or occupation, register in a book to be kept for that purpose by the city recorder, their names, professions or occupations, and their places of business, and that no person, firm, corporation or association shall engage in or manage any such business, profession or occupation until after having been so registered in the office of the city recorder.

The second section provides that from and after the first day of October, 1899, no person shall engage in or manage the business, profession, occupation or occupations thereinafter mentioned and required to be licensed by the city, without first having paid the amount of [512]*512license tax required therefor to> the city treasurer for the use of the city and obtained a city license therefor, and that the license shall be made out by the recorder on production of the treasurer’s receipt for the amount, which receipt shall be countersigned by the comptroller.

Section 4 provides that no person, firm, corporation or association shall engage in .or manage any business, profession or occupation in this section mentioned without first obtaining from the city a license therefor, and the assessments of such taxes are hereby fixed as follows. Here follows quite an extensive list of professions, occupations and businesses arranged alphabetically, with the amount of license tax imposed thereon, among which is the following: “Liquors, dealers in spirituous vinous or malt liquors for each place of business $275.”

The fifth section provides “that any person violating any provision of this ordinance shall upon conviction be punished by a fine not exceeding, $500, or imprisoned not exceeding ninety days.”

1. It is urged that the city’s charter confers no power upon it to require the registration provided for in section 1 of the ordinance, and that as the entire ordinance is designed as a complete system of raising revenue by taxing all or nearly all of the occupations engaged in within the city, if any part is invalid, the whole must fall with it. In City of Jacksonville v. Ledwith, 26 Fla. 163, text 212, 7 South. Rep. 885, it is said that if all the provisions of an ordinance are connected in subject-matter depending upon each other operating-together for the same purpose, or otherwise so connected together in meaning that it can not be presumed that the legislative power of the city would have passed the one without the other, the whole ordinance will be de[513]*513dared void. On the other hand, where some parts are not connected with or dependent upon others, as where the ordinance attempts to^ accomplish two or more independent objects, it may be void in part and valid as to the residue. If its purpose is to accomplish a single object only, and some of its provisions are void, the whole must fail unless sufficient remains to effect the object without the aid of the invalid portions. If the valid and the void parts “are so mutually connected with and dependent on each other as conditions, considerations or compensations for each other as to warrant the belief that the city legislative power intended them as a whole and if all could not be carried into effect it would not pass the residue independently, then if some parts are beyond the power to enact, all the provisions which are thus dependent, conditional or connected must fall with them.” Plaintiff in error is not charged with a violation of this section of the ordinance, but with a violation of a subsequent section. It is not necessary for us to decide whether the city had power to enact the first section, for, admitting that it had not that power, the invalidity of that section would not, under the rule stated in the Ledwith case supra, affect the validity of the remainder of the ordinance.

2. It is also urged that the city has no power to enact a license tax ordinance to remain in force until repealed, but that it must each year pass a new ordinance upon the subject, levying a specific occupational tax for that year. In several sections of the charter such expressions as the “annual levy of taxes,” or the levy for the “current” or “ensuing year,” and “levy in any year,” are used, but the connection in which these expressions are used shows that they relate to taxes upon property, and not license taxes, and we have not [514]*514been referred, to any provision of law which either expressly or by implication forbids the passage of an ordinance levying license taxes, to remain in force until repealed in some manner provided for by law. If the city has power to pass an ordinance, and there is nothing in the nature of the subject-matter or charter act, or the ordinance itself, which limits the operation of the ordinance' to a definite period, it necessarily remains in force until repealed by the same power that enacted it or superseded by some superior authority.

3. It is further insisted that this ordinance imposes taxes upon occupations not taxed, as well as upon others taxed, by the State; that the city has no power to impose the one, and in imposing the other the amounts of its license taxes must not exceed 50 per cent, of the State tax. If this latter contention is correct, then the tax imposed upon dealers in spirituous, vinous and malt liquors is invalid because it exceeds 50 per cent, of the State tax upon the same privilege. To determine these questions it will be necessary to refer to several special acts relating to the city and the general revenue laws of the State. The charter of Jacksonville (Chap.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Lysaght v. City of New Smyrna Beach
159 So. 2d 869 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1964)
City of Miami v. State Ex Rel. Shehan
27 So. 2d 829 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1946)
State Ex Rel. Greeson v. Roberts
170 So. 457 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1936)
Langston v. Lundsford
165 So. 898 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1936)
Whitney v. Hillsborough County
127 So. 486 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1930)
Amos v. Mathews
126 So. 308 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1930)
Gillis, Ex Rel. State of Fla. v. Croft
109 So. 446 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1926)
City of Sheridan v. Litman
228 P. 628 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1924)
City of St. Petersburg v. Pinellas County Power Co.
100 So. 509 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1924)
City of Knoxville v. Southern Ry. Co.
149 Tenn. 291 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1923)
Provo City v. Provo Meat & Packing Co.
165 P. 477 (Utah Supreme Court, 1917)
City of Norfolk v. Griffin Bros.
91 S.E. 640 (Supreme Court of Virginia, 1917)
Hardee v. Brown
56 Fla. 377 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1908)
State ex rel. Worley v. Lewis
55 Fla. 570 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1908)
Lachman v. Walker
52 Fla. 297 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1906)
City Council v. Kelly
142 Ala. 552 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1904)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 Fla. 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/canova-v-williams-fla-1899.