Oklahoma City v. Grigsby

1935 OK 86, 41 P.2d 697, 171 Okla. 23, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 75
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 29, 1935
DocketNo. 25802.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1935 OK 86 (Oklahoma City v. Grigsby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oklahoma City v. Grigsby, 1935 OK 86, 41 P.2d 697, 171 Okla. 23, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 75 (Okla. 1935).

Opinions

WELCH, J.

This is an appeal from the district court of Oklahoma county. Plaintiffs in error, city of Oklahoma City, a municipal corporation, O. M. Mosier, city manager of said city, and John Watt, chief of police of said city, were defendants in the lower court, and defendant in error, H. E. Grigsby, was plaintiff below. The parties will herein be referred to as plaintiff and defendants, as they appeared in the trial court.

The district court, upon application of plaintiff, who owned and operated a restaurant in Oklahoma City, wherein he dispensed 3.2% beer, restrained the city and the designated officers thereof from enforcing a city ordinance in so far as concerned the collection of an annual license fee of $15 from the plaintiff as a dispenser of such beer.

That judgment is attacked here, and the question necessary for our determination is whether or not chapter 204, S. L. 1933 (Sp. Sess.), prohibited or excluded the defendants from charging a license fee as a prerequisite to plaintiff’s right to dispense such beer within the limits of such city.

Plaintiff contends that section 11 of chapter 204, S. L. 1933 (Sp. Sess.), prohibits the levying of any tax or license fee by the city. Such section provides as follows:

“The tax imposed by any law of the state on nonintoxicating beverages, as defined herein, shall be exclusive of any tax, license fee or charge upon the sale, distribution, possession or handling of such nonintoxicating beverages; and is exempt- from the terms of any general sales tax now in force or which may hereafter be adopted.”

On this question the defendants maintain that such section is void under section 57, article 5, of the Constitution, in that section 11 of the 1933 Act is not related to the subject-matter as expressed in the title of the act. They say, further, that section 11 of the act was not intended for the purpose as applied by the trial court.'

We quote the title of the act as follows:

“An Act providing for the enforcement of the laws of the state imposing license fees and taxes upon nonintoxicating beverages containing more than one-half of one per centum of alcohol, by volume, and not more than three and two-tenths per centum of alcohol, by weight; defining terms; providing the manner of issuing licenses to wholesalers and retail dealers; providing that taxes shall be paid by wholesalers ; and by retail dealers in certain ■cases; providing for distribution under the terms and provisions of House Bill No. 647, Regular Session of the Fourteenth *24 Legislature, for use by school districts immediately upon receipt thereof; prescribe ing the conditions under which sales of beverages, as herein defined, may be made and the taxes thereon may be paid: providing how such taxes may be paid and for reports and returns thereof; providing for reports by manufacturers, wholesale and retail dealers; prescribing penalties for failure to pay taxes; for failure to make returns and reports and for the violation of laws and the rules and regulations of the Oklahoma Tax Commission; providing that such nonintoxicating beverages possessed, offered for sale, sold or transported, in violation of law, shall be subject to confiscation and destruction, and that motor vehicles transporting such beverages, in violation of law, shall be subject to confiscation and sale, and defining the procedure therefor, and defining the duties of county attorneys and the Oklahoma Tax Commission in connection therewith; requiring bonds for wholesalers and retail dealers, providing the amounts thereof and defining the sureties and securities that may be accepted, and providing for review of the action of the Commission thereon ; providing for liens upon taxpayers’ property and for tax warrants; providing how such beverages may be transported; providing for the revocation of licenses; providing for injunctions; providing for remedy by suit against taxpayers; providing a legal _ remedy for aggrieved taxpayers; proscribing the manner in which such beverages shall be labeled and prohibiting the use of any substitute therefor; providing that the provisions of this act shall be severable, that its provisions shall not be a burden upon interstate commerce, and declaring an emergency. ”

The constitutional provision relied upon provides:

“Every act of the Legislature shall embrace but one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title. * * *” Art. 5, sec. 57.

In considering the question of the sufficiency of the title of the act, we observe the language of this court in the case of In re County Com’rs of Counties Comprising Seventh Judicial Dist., 22 Okla. 435, 98 P. 557, wherein the court in discussing this same provision of our Constitution said:

“The other abuse against which this provision was levied was to prevent matters foreign to the main objects of a bill from finding their way into such enactment surreptitiously. Substantially such a provision is found in many of the state Constitutions, and, as is usual in such cases, judges have differed in their interpretation of: the same. The best-considered eases, however, appear to have established the following propositions: That the clause is mandatory; that its requirements are not to be exactingly enforced, or in such a technical manner as to cripple legislation; that the title of a bill may be very gen-( eral, and need not contain an abstract of’ the contents of the bill, or specify every clause therein, it being sufficient if they are all referable and cognate to the subject expressed. Everything which is necessary to make a complete enactment, or to result as a complement of the thought therein contained is included in and authorized by such title expressed in general terms. ”

The defendants argue that the city ordinance involved in this cause is purely regulatory, and is well within the police power of the city as granted by its charter, the state laws of the state, and the state Constitution, and that nowhere in the title of the bill is to be found anything to indicate that the Legislature intended by the bill to withdraw such power or abridge the same.

We have carefully examined the above-quoted title of the act, and conclude that the subject and purpose of the act is clearly stated therein, to wit: To provide for and regulate the possession, transportation and sale of 3.2% beer, and the licensing thereof, as a nonintoxicating beverage.

If the title to the bill indicates that the Legislature therein is providing for the issuing of licenses and the payment of the fees thereof, it would appear that a provision in the bill providing that no other fees or taxes shall be charged therefor is clearly related to the subject-matter as expressed in the title. The Legislature had the unquestioned right to provide for the issuing of licenses and the charging of a fee for dispensing the beer, and the title to the act clearly discloses that to be the subject of legislation. Having such right, it also had the right to provide that such fees or charges should not be made by other governing bodies of the state, and an exclusion of such other governing bodies to levy any further fees or charges for the same rights and privileges is cognate and directly associated with such subject-matter of the act.

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Bluebook (online)
1935 OK 86, 41 P.2d 697, 171 Okla. 23, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-city-v-grigsby-okla-1935.