City of Fort Smith v. Gunter

154 S.W. 181, 106 Ark. 371, 1913 Ark. LEXIS 260
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 17, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 154 S.W. 181 (City of Fort Smith v. Gunter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Fort Smith v. Gunter, 154 S.W. 181, 106 Ark. 371, 1913 Ark. LEXIS 260 (Ark. 1913).

Opinion

Smith, J.

John Gunter, the appellee, was fined in the police court in the city of Fort Smith for running a restaurant without a license in violation of ordinance 970 of that city, the portion of which, applicable to the case at bar, is as follows:

“Be it ordained by the city council of the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas:

Section 1. That the license hereinafter named shall be fixed, imposed and collected at the following rates and sums, and it shall be unlawful for any person, or persons, to exercise or pursue any of the following vocations or business in the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, without having first obtained a license therefor from the proper city authorities and having paid for the same in gold, silver or United States currency.

* * * * * * * *

Sec. 55. Bestaurant. For each restaurant $25 per annum, $15 for six”months, $3 per month.”

The cause was tried in the court below, after an appeal had been taken from the judgment of the police court of the city of Fort Smith, upon the following agreed statement of facts:

“It is agreed that the defendant, Gunter, keeps a house on Garrison avenue in the city of Fort Smith, in which he has and causes to be cooked and prepared barbecued meats, and sells and delivers same to all parts of the city, keeps tables and chairs and feeds any and all persons who desire to eat in his place of business, furnishing them meals at any and all hours; that he keeps his place of business open, and barbecued meat and bread, milk and coffee with proper dishes and plates and other means for serving the barbecued meat and bread and milk and coffee are furnished; that on the sidewalk and front window he has exhibited the following sign in large letters:

Stop and try our barbecue.

Dinner, 15 cents.

Coffee, 5 cents.

Milk, 5 cents.

City barbecue, family orders a specialty.

That at the time of bis arrest and prosecution in the city court, he was carrying on the business as detailed above; that he had no license from the city of Fort Smith to carry on said business.

The court made the following declarations of law and findings of fact:

“That cities and towns have no power to tax or license except such as is granted by the laws or Constitution of the State.

“2. That under section 5454 of Kirby’s Digest, of the statute granting cities and towns power ‘to regulate hotels, and other houses for public entertainment,’ the city of Fort Smith has no power to tax a restaurant, and the ordinance attempting to do so is void; that a restaurant is neither a hotel nor a house for public entertainment.

‘ ‘ 3. That if such power to tax' restaurants did or does exist,' the defendant, under the agreed statement of facts in this case, was not running a restaurant, but was engaged in the cooking and sale of barbecued meats, and that the feeding of the public, as shown by the agreed statement of facts, is or was incident to his business of preparing, cooking and selling barbecued meats.

“Wherefore, it is considered, ordered and adjudged by the court that the defendant be discharged.”

The parties hereto agree that the case presents three questions for consideration as follows:

“1. Does a charge of $25 per year, $15 for six months, and $3 per month for ‘hotels and other houses for public entertainment ’ amount to a tax, or is it a regulation?

“2. Under the power ‘to regulate hotels and other houses for public entertainment’ has the city of Fort Smith the power to regulate a restaurant?

“3. Does such a place as is here agreed on, where the appellee kept ‘tables and chairs and fed any and all persons who desired to eat in his place of business, fur-rushing them meals at any and all hours,’ amount to a ‘house for public entertainment’ within section 5454 of Kirby’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas?” Questions similar to the first question have been discussed in a number of decisions of this court. In the case of City of Fayetteville v. Carter, 52 Ark. 301, which involved the validity of an ordinance in the city of Fayetteville, forbidding all persons to drum or solicit patronage from persons who arrive on trains for any hotel or boarding house, without having first obtained a license to do so, by paying therefor the sum of $12.50, the court said:

“The power to license and regulate, granted by the statute, was conferred solely for police purposes; and municipal corporations have no right to use it as a means of increasing their revenues. They can require a reasonable fee to be paid for a license. The amount they have a right to demand for such fee depends upon the extent and expense of the municipal supervision made necessary by the business in the city or town where it is licensed. A fee sufficient to cover the expense of issuing the license, and to pay the expenses which may be incurred in the enforcement of such police inspection or superintendence as may be lawfully exercised over the business, may be required. It is obvious that the actual amount necessary to meet such expenses can not, in all cases, be ascertained in advance, and that ‘it would be futile to require anything of the kind. ’ The result is, if the fee required is not plainly unreasonable, the courts ought not to interfere with the discretion exercised by the council in fixing it; and unless the contrary appears on the face of the ordinance requiring it, or is established by proper evidence, they should presume it to be reasonable.”

Other cases which involve the question here considered, and which follow the principle stated in the Carter case, supra, are: Arkadelphia Lumber Co. v. Arkadelphia, 56 Ark. 370; Brewster v. Pine Bluff, 70 Ark. 28; Carpenter v. Little Rock, 101 Ark. 238; Trigg v. Dixon, 96 Ark. 199. We can not say and it does not appear that the fee required in this case is unreasonable.

The second and third questions may be discussed together. It is settled that the authority of the city to enact an ordinance like the one under consideration must plainly appear in the statute and this authority will not be inferred from terms of doubtful or uncertain import. The authority for this ordinance is claimed to be conferred under the provisions of section 5454 of Kirby’s Digest, which reads as follows:

“5454. They (city councils) shall have the power to license, regulate or prohibit all theatrical exhibitions and public .shows, and all exhibitions of whatever name or nature. Provided, lectures on science, historical or literary subjects shall not be included within the provisions of this section; to regulate or prohibit the sale of all horses, or other domestic animals at auction in the streets, alleys or highways; to regulate all carts, wagons, drays, hackney coaches, omnibuses, and ferries, and every description of carriages which may be kept for hire, and all livery stables; to regulate hotels and other houses for public entertainment, and to regulate or to prohibit ale and porter shops or houses, and public places of habitual resort for tippling and intemperance, and to declare what are such.”

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Bluebook (online)
154 S.W. 181, 106 Ark. 371, 1913 Ark. LEXIS 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-fort-smith-v-gunter-ark-1913.