Lloyd v. Richardson

124 S.E. 37, 158 Ga. 633, 1924 Ga. LEXIS 317
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJuly 3, 1924
DocketNo. 4229
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 124 S.E. 37 (Lloyd v. Richardson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lloyd v. Richardson, 124 S.E. 37, 158 Ga. 633, 1924 Ga. LEXIS 317 (Ga. 1924).

Opinion

Beck, P. J.

The merit of the petitioners’ claim to the equitable relief sought depends upon the contention that the act imposing the tax.in question is unconstitutional. There are several grounds set forth in the petition upon which it is insisted the act is unconstitutional and void. The ground of unconstitutionality of the act which is argued most at length and most earnestly is the one based upon the contention that the act violates article 3, section 7, paragraph 8, of the constitution of this State, which inhibits the passage of any law referring to more than one subject-matter.

Subsections (a) and (b) of section 1 of the act are as follows: “ (a) There shall be levied upon and collected from each person, firm, or corporation, engaged in selling cigarettes and cigars at [635]*635retail, a tax of ten per centum of the sales price at retail of each package of cigarettes and each cigar sold by such dealer, (b) Bach dealer shall pay said tax to the Comptroller-General of the State of Georgia, who shall thereupon furnish to such dealer stamps of such design and denominations as may be prescribed by said Comptroller-General; and it shall be the duty of each dealer to affix to each package of cigarettes and each cigar a stamp, or stamps, furnished by said Comptroller-General, evidencing the payment of the tax imposed by this act, and to cancel such stamps, before said cigarettes or cigars are offered for sale.” And subsections (c), (d), and (e) of section 1 relate to penalties for failure to pay the tax, and for counterfeiting stamps, etc., and to evidence of the violation of the act. Section 2 allocates the funds raised by the taxation, providing that $250,000 of the funds raised, by thjs tax for the years 1924 and 1925 shall be appropriated to the State Board of Health for the purpose of building and equipping new buildings for the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Alto; and th%balance of the funds raised by this taxation to be appropriated to the payment of pensions then due and to become due under certain pension acts referred to. Section 3 of the act provides that dealers in cigarettes and cigars shall not be required to pay any additional occupation tax to the State to that imposed by this act, nor shall any other tax be required of cigar dealers.

We cannot agree with counsel for plaintiffs in error in their contention that this act contains more than one subject-matter. The subject-matter of the act is the levying of a tax upon retail dealers in cigarettes and cigars. That is the one single, outstanding subject-matter of the • act in the sense in which the word “subject-matter” is used in the clause of the constitution referred to. “The ‘subject’ of an act is the matter or thing forming the ground work of the act, which may include many parts or things, so long as they are all germane to it and are such that if traced back they will lead the mind to the subject as the generic head.

. . An act is not unconstitutional because more than one object is contained therein, where the objects are germane to the main subject, or they relate directly or indirectly to the main subject, and have a mutual connection with and are not foreign to the subject of such act, or when the provisions of the act are [636]*636of the same nature and come logically under one subject.” 25 E. C. L. 844. We are of the opinion that the appropriation of funds raised by taxation is germane to the subject of taxation itself. Appropriation follows taxation; they are so intimately connected that we cannot have the one concept, under our system of government, without its bringing before the mind the other. It may be true that the legislature generally passes acts for levying taxes without including in the same bill provisions for their appropriation; but taxation and appropriation are so closely related, so intimately associated in our minds, that where the object of the taxation is indicated by naming the subject or object to which the fund which it is proposed to raise by the levy of such tax is allocated, no surprise can be created; but the natural order of things seems to have been followed. The provision of this act appropriating the funds, it seems to us, is more closely germane to the main subject of the act (that is, the imposing of the tax) than are many provisions in acts which have been upheld, relating to the raising of funds and the appropriation of those funds to the main object of the act under which the funds appropriated were raised. In the ease of Carroll v. Wright, 131 Ga. 728, 746 (63 S. E. 260), it was held -that there is not any constitutional inhibition “against the raising and the appropriation of revenue for a specific purpose in the same act; and it would seem that this might be very appropriately done in an act like the one under consideration, where the sole purpose of raising the revenue contemplated by the act is for the single object to which the appropriation is made.” It is true that in the case last referred to the appropriation made was for a “single object,” while here the appropriation is for two objects. But in the Carroll case the ruling was directly made that the fact that the same act provides for the raising of revenue and for its appropriation does not render it obnoxious to the constitutional provision against the duplicity of subjects. It authorized the conclusion which we have announced above, that the appropriation of the revenue to be raised by the imposition of a tax is germane to the main subject of the act, where that main subject is the levying of a tax. And if in an act imposing a tax it is not introducing foreign matter to provide for its appropriation, it seems clear that the appropriation might be made to any of the objects to which it is permissible to make ap[637]*637propriation, either in the general appropriation act or in special appropriation acts. The provision in the organic law is against duplicity or multiplicity of subjects which constitute the main objects of the act, and is not aimed at objects or subjects which are germane to the main subject-matter included in it. If it were, the various decisions of this court upholding acts for the incor•poration of towns and cities could not be defended; for in many of those acts, under a general statement of the purpose of the act, to wit, that it is an act for the incorporation of this or that city, provisions are made in the body of the act itself for the raising of funds by taxation, and the appropriations of the funds thus raised to various objects are also made. It is not necessary to quote from or cite these decisions upholding these acts; they are numerous and familiar.

In the case of Black v. Cohen, 52 Ga. 621, it was held that under a title to authorize the Mayor and Council of the City of Home to subscribe for stock in one railroad upon certain conditions, and for other purposes, and a .provision in the act authorizing the City of Eome to subscribe for stock in any other railroad which might be projected and which had its terminus in that city, upon certain conditions, the fact that an act and an amendment thereto authorized the subscription by said corporation to two or more railroads did not render them unconstitutional as referring to more than one subject-matter. In the case of Hope v. Gainesville, 72 Ga. 246, it was said: “Because the means are provided in the act by which this railroad is to be laid out and constructéd and the object of the legislature effected, it is said it renders the act void, as containing more than one subject-matter. We do not think so.

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Bluebook (online)
124 S.E. 37, 158 Ga. 633, 1924 Ga. LEXIS 317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lloyd-v-richardson-ga-1924.