City of Lamar v. Adams

90 Mo. App. 35, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 273
Court of Appeals of Kansas·Decided June 3, 1901·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

SMITH, P. J.

This cause was transferred here from the Supreme Court. The plaintiff, a city of the fourth class, in February, 1897, passed “an ordinance concerning the licensing, taxing and regulating occupations, trades and business,” by the second section of which it was provided: “No person, company, association or corporation shall within the city of Lamar conduct, exercise, carry on, deal in, or engage in any occupation, profession, trade, business or avocation hereinafter mentioned, named or described, nor deal in, sell or keep any of the articles, things or places hereinafter named, [39] mentioned or described, -without first taking out a city license therefor, as in this' ordinance provided. There is hereby levied a license tax, to be charged and collected as hereinafter provided, on the respective occupations, professions, trades, businesses and avocations hereinafter named, mentioned or described, and on all persons, companies, associations and corporations who shall deal in or sell any of the articles or things hereinafter mentioned, named or described, and on all persons, companies, associations and corporations hereinafter described, named or mentioned, in the respective sums and amounts, and for the term hereinafter stated to-wit: * * * * Eire insurance agents, $5 per annum; fire insurance companies, $15 per annum.” * * * *

And by the twenty-first section of said ordinance it was further provided: “Any person or persons who shall, within the city of Lamar, act as agent or solicitor for any company, firm, corporation, individual or association of individuals before such company, firm, corporation, individual or association of individuals shall have been authorized and licensed by the city, as herein provided, to transact business within the city, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.”

The London & Lancashire Insurance Company of Liverpool, England, a corporation organized for the purpose of doing a fire insurance business, was at the time hereinafter mentioned duly authorized under article 4, chap. 89, Revised Statutes 1889, and the acts amendatory thereof, to carry on its business of fire insurance in this State; that during the eleven months preceding February 2, 1898, the defendant acted as the agent and solicitor of the said insurance company within the corporate limits of the plaintiff, and as such agent and solicitor did solicit fire insurance risks therein for said insur[40] anee company, and did issue a policy and receive tbe premium therefor in behalf of said insurance company; that during the time defendant was so acting as agent and solicitor of the said insurance company it had not taken out and did not have a license from the plaintiff city to carry on and transact its insurance business therein. The defendant was prosecuted and convicted for violating the provisions of the ordinance of the plaintiff set forth at the outset. The defendant brings' the case here by appeal.

The question which the defendant by his appeal has brought before us for decision is, whether the said ordinance, under which he was convicted, was enacted in excess of the power conferred on plaintiff by the provisions of its charter, and therefore void ? It has been seen that the tax required by said ordinance is a license tax. The imposition of such a-tax may be referable to the taxing power, the police power, or both; to the police power alone if the object is merely to regulate and the amount received merely pays the expense of enforcing the regulations, and to the taxing power alone if its main object is revenue. St. Louis v. Green, 7 Mo. App. 468; s. c., 70 Mo. 562. We are bound to know that the license fee of fifteen dollars exacted of each insurance company is far in excess of the reasonable expense of enforcement of any regulation, and hence we must conclude that the main object of the tax was revenue. And this conclusion is strengthened by reading ordinance No. 28 of plaintiff in connection with that in question, from which it will be seen that the license taxes provided by the latter are by the former required to be paid into the general revenue fund. Such license fee is nothing more nor less than an occupation tax imposed for revenue.

Adverting to section 84 of the Act of April 11, 1895, p. 65, which is plaintiff’s charter, and it will be seen that cities of the fourth class are there authorized “to regulate and [41] to license and to levy and collect a license tax” on a great variety of occupations, privileges, trades and callings, including insurance companies. It is thus seen that by the express terms of the plaintiff’s charter, the power is conferred to not only license but to tax. And under this power the plaintiff was authorized to levy and collect a tax for revenue by way of a license, unless the exercise of that authority is taken away or forbidden by some other provision of law. Collections of words to be found in other statutes similar to that employed in plaintiff’s charter have been held to confer the power to tax for revenue. Springfield v. Smith, 138 Mo. 645 ; St. Louis v. Weitzel, 130 Mo. 600; St. Joseph v. Ernst, 95 Mo. 360; St. Louis v. Sternberg, 69 Mo. 289; St. Louis v. Green, ante; St. Louis v. Spiegel, 8 Mo. App. 478. We have no doubt that the plaintiff had the power under its charter to exact by ordinance a license tax for revenue on the privilege of carrying on the business of insurance within its limits.

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City of Lamar v. Adams, 90 Mo. App. 35, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 273 (kanctapp 1901).

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