Memphis v. American Express Co.

102 Tenn. 336
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 102 Tenn. 336 (Memphis v. American Express Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Memphis v. American Express Co., 102 Tenn. 336 (Tenn. 1899).

Opinion

Caldwell, J.

The American Express Company brought this suit against the city of Memphis to recover the sum of $57, paid under protest by the company to the city as a license tax for the year 1898 on the company’s eight wagons run over the streets of the city in gathering up and delivering express packages. The Circuit Judge, who tried the case without the intervention of a jury, rendered judgment for the company, and the city appealed in error.

[338]*338The contention of the company was and is that the legislation under which the license tax was im- ■ posed had been repealed by the general revenue bill passed in the year 1897, but the city denied below, and denies here, that such was the effect of this subsequent legislation. The solution of this disputed question will decide the case.

By Chapter 10 of the Acts of. 1879 the charter of the city of Memphis was abolished, and under the provisions of Chapter 11 of the Acts of the same year a taxing district was established for the same territory. The city of Memphis, like other municipalities in the State, had been accustomed to levy its own taxes under the authority of general State laws, but the Legislature of the State, by bills framed and passed for that purpose, levied taxes for the taxing district.

Section 7 of Chap. 84 of the Acts of 1879, enumerated, in as many subsections, fifty-eight- “taxable privileges” in the taxing district, and “fixed” the amount of the tax on each. Subsections 20, 21, and 22 related to carts, wagons, drays, and certain other vehicles, and prescribed the exact tax to be paid for the privilege of using the same in the taxing district. These three subsections of that Act were amended by Sec. 1, Chap. 104, of the Acts of 1889, so as to provide that the tax to be annually paid for the use of such vehicles in the taxing district, should be $1, $2, or $3 (according to prescribed classes), if the tire should be as [339]*339much as 3-J- inches in width, and $5, <$7.50, or, $10 each for the same classes, respectively, if the tire should be less than 3£ inches in .width. It was under and by virtue of this provision that the tax involved in this case was demanded and received by the city.

In 1893 the Legislature of the State conferred upon the city of Memphis, as successor to the taxing district, ample taxing power, including the benefit of all laws imposing privilege taxes in favor of the . taxing district. jActs 1893, Chap. 84, Secs. 4 and 5; Hunter v. Memphis, 93 Tenn., 573.

By that Act ‘ ‘ the city was rehabilitated with corporate autonomy, and authorized to exercise the taxing power, as an arm of the State government.” Memphis v. Bing, 94 Tenn., 645. Thus the city became authorized to collect such privilege taxes under the Act of 1889 as the taxing district would have been authorized to collect if its existence had been continued; and, as a consequence, the city was entitled to collect the tax here in question, unless the aforesaid provision of that Act was repealed before the accrual of the tax.

Section 6 of the general revenue law of 1897 is in these words: “The following corporations .shall pay directly to the Comptroller of the State the following taxes on the following privileges: Express companies (in lieu of all other taxes except ad va-lorem tax), if the lines are less than 100 miles, . . . per annum, $500; if lines are more than [340]*340100 miles, . . . per annum, $2,000.” Acts 1897, Chap. 2, Sec. 6, pp. 74, 75.

By this provision a privilege tax is laid in favor of the State on all express companies, and that tax is declared to be ‘ ‘ in lieu of all other ’ ’ privilege taxes. The words “in lieu of all other” privilege taxes show an indisputable purpose on the part of the Legislature to exclude the right of any county or municipality to levy a privilege tax on express companies. The tax so laid in favor of the State “ covers the whole domain of privilege taxation that the Legislature intends shall be occupied, and excludes every other privilege tax” on express companies until further legislation with respect thereto shall be had. Hunter v. Memphis, 93 Tenn., 575. To make this construction doubly sure, the thirteenth section of the Act was inserted. That section is as follows: ‘‘That whenever the words ‘in lieu of all other taxes,’ occur in this Act, it is hereby declared to be the legislative intention that county and municipal taxes are excluded.” Acts 1897, Ch. 2, p. 80.

Having full power upon this subject (Railroad v. Harris, 99 Tenn., 685; Reelfoot Lake Levee District v. Dawson, 97 Tenn., 151), it was entiz-ely competent for the Legislature, in its discretion, tp provide that the whole of the revenue thus raised should go to the State and that no county or municipality should have any part thereof.

This enactment is in irreconcilable conflict with that [341]*341under and by virtue of which the city collected the tax here under consideration. There is such repugnance between the two provisions that they cannot co-exist or stand together. It results, therefore, that the later enactment repealed the earlier one by implication. Hunter v. Memphis, 93 Tenn., 571. It was suggested in argument that an express repeal was accomplished by the concluding section of the later Act, which is in this language: “That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.” Acts 1897, Ch. 2, Sec. 18, p. 81. This provision cannot operate as an express repeal, because the Act does not meet the constitutional requirement (Const., Art. II., Sec. 17), that the title or substance of all laws repealed shall be recited in the caption or body of the repealing act. The presence of this repealing clause in the Act is of no force whatever. State v. Yardley, 95 Tenn., 548.

It is no answer to the conclusion that there was an implied repeal, to say that the subject of municipal taxation was not mentioned in the title of the Act of 1897. The title of that Act is as follows: “An Act to provide revenue for the State of Tennessee and the counties thereof.” Confessedly, this title is broad enough to cover any provision that might .be made to raise revenue for the State, and the declaration in the body of the Act, that any specific privilege tax laid for the State should be in lieu of all other privilege taxation on the same [342]*342business or occupation, is obviously within the scope of that title. It is clearly germane to the subject presented in the title, and that is all that the Constitution (Art. II., Sec. 17, cl. 2) requires. It is sufficient compliance w.ith the constitutional requirement that the title disclose the general object of the bill. Recitation of details as to the mode and manner "of- accomplishing that object need not be made in the title. The details are for the body of the bill, and, so long as they are germane to the subject expressed in the title, the legislation is in accord with the mandate of the organic law. State v. Yardley, 95 Tenn., 553, 554; Black’s Const. Law, Sec. 107; Cooley’s Const. Lim. (5th Ed.), p. 174.

The decisions made in the case of Knoxville v. Lewis, 12 Lea, 180, and Burke v. Memphis, 94 Tenn., 692, are not in- conflict with this well-established rule. In the former .

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Bluebook (online)
102 Tenn. 336, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/memphis-v-american-express-co-tenn-1899.