Smith v. Mahoney

197 P. 704, 22 Ariz. 342, 1921 Ariz. LEXIS 140
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 1921
DocketCivil No. 1847
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 197 P. 704 (Smith v. Mahoney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Mahoney, 197 P. 704, 22 Ariz. 342, 1921 Ariz. LEXIS 140 (Ark. 1921).

Opinion

BAKER, J.

(After Stating the Facts as Above.) — The appellant attacks the validity of the act of the legislature under which he was convicted as being violative of both the federal and state Constitutions in a number of specified particulars, none of which will be discussed in the opinion except the claim that the act is a revenue or tax measure and offends section 1, article 9, of the state Constitution, because the tax provided for is not uniform and is unequal. Section 1, article 9, reads as follows:

“All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected for public purposes only.”

The state claims that the act is a police measure requiring the payment of a license fee by nonresi[346]*346dents for the privilege of grazing sheep, goats, cattle, or horses within the state of Arizona.

Courts may not lightly set aside a legislative enactment. Every reasonable doubt is to be resolved in favor of the law, and before an act can be declared to be unconstitutional it must clearly appear that it cannot be supported by any reasonable intendment or allowable presumption.

“Courts will approach the question with great caution, examine it in every possible aspect, and ponder upon it as long as deliberation and patient attention can throw any new light on the subject, and never declare a statute void, unless the nullity and invalidity of the act are placed, in their judgment beyond reasonable doubt.” In re Wellington et al., Petitioners, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 87, 95, 26 Am. Dec. 631.

Nor has the question of the wisdom of the legislation anything to do with determining its constitutionality. That question is for the legislature, and whether the court agrees with it in that particular or not is of no consequence. It is solely a question of power.

Therefore it is our bounden duty to view the legislative enactment under consideration in the light of these great stars and, sustain it, unless we are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that it is clearly in conflict with the constitutional provision.

Whether the enactment was the exercise of the police power of the state or the taxing power depends upon the purposes of the act. Thus we find it stated in 22 Am. & Eng. Ency, of Law (second edition), 917:

“The police power must also be distinguished from the taxing power, and the distinction is this: That the taxing power is exercised for the raising of revenue, while the police power is exercised only for the purpose of promoting the public welfare, and though this end may be attained by taxing or licensing occu[347]*347pations, yet the object must always be regulation and not the raising of revenue, and hence the restrictions upon the taxing power do not apply.”

And in Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations (sixth edition), page 242, it is said:

“A license is issued under the police power; but the exaction of a license fee with a view to revenue would be the éxercise of the power of taxation.”

In another work of the same eminent author, it is said:

“The right of any sovereignty to look beyond the immediate purpose to the general effect neither is nor can be disputed. The government has general authority to raise a revenue and to choose the methods of doing so; it has also general authority over the regulation of relative rights, privileges, and duties, and there is no rule of reason or policy in government which can require the legislature, when making laws with the one object in view, to exclude carefully from its attention the other. Nevertheless, cases of this nature are to be regarded as cases of taxation. Revenue is the primary purpose, and the regulation results from the methods of apportionment that are resorted to in obtaining the revenue. Only those cases where regulation is the primary purpose can be especially referred to the police power. 2 Cooley on Taxation (3d ed.), p. 1127.

The distinction between the exercise of the police power of the state and the taxing power pointed out in the foregoing authorities has been recognized in numerous decisions of the courts holding that a license fee imposed under the guise of the police power was in legal effect a tax. We cite some of the cases without any attempt to exhaust the list. Ex parte Mayes, 14 Okl. Cr. 696, 174 Pac. 1181; Ellis v. Frazier, 38 Or. 462, 53 L. R. A. 454, 63 Pac. 642; Pittsburgh, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. State, 49 Ohio St. 189, 16 L. R. A. 380, 30 N. E. 435; Muhlenbrinck v. Commissioners, 42 N. J. L. 364, 36 Am. Rep. 518; [348]*348North Hudson County Ry. v. Hoboken, 41 N. J. L. 71; Mestayer v. Corrige, 38 La. Ann. 707; Pitts v. Vicksburg, 72 Miss. 181, 16 South. 418; Livingston v. City Council of Albany, 41 Ga. 21; State ex rel. School Dist. v. Boyd, 63 Neb. 829, 58 L. R. A. 108, 89 N. W. 417; City of Kansas v. Corrigan, 18 Mo. App. 206.

So then the question here is this: "What is the purpose of this enactment? "What is the natural effect of putting it into operation? The fundamentals tell us that the purpose must be gleaned from the natural and legal effect of the language employed in the act. But the court will look beyond the mere title or the bare legislative assertion that the provision is for a license to see and determine the real object, purpose, and result of the act. The nomenclature is not so essential. 6 R. C. L. 237; Loohner v. New York, 198 U. S. 45, 3 Ann. Cas. 1133, 49 L. Ed. 937, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 539 (see, also, Rose’s U. S. Notes). It is apparent at first blush that the license provided for in this extraordinary act is imposed for the purpose of revenue, and consequently does not fall within the protection of the police power of the state. It cannot be said, with any degree of confidence, that the primary object of the act is the prevention of some offense or manifest evil, or that it has for its primary aim the preservation of the public health, morals, safety, or welfare. It shows upon its face that regulation is not its purpose, but that revenue or undue restriction in the in. terest of others not embraced in the class designated is the aim in view. We say this cautiously and without any intent to reflect upon the motives of the legislature in adopting the law. We are bound to know that the license of twenty-five cents per head for each and every head of sheep or goats and fifty cents per head for each and every head of cattle or horses grazed or pastured within the state of Arizona, exacted of every nonresident person, firm, partnership,-association, or [349]*349corporation, is far in excess of the reasonable expense of enforcement of any regulation. Certainly this is the case when such license must be paid to the sheriff of each and every county in the state where such animals may be grazed or pastured. A very usual method of exercising the police power in the regulation of business enterprises is by the requiring of license for engaging in certain lines of business. 22 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law (2d ed.), 935. But we do not think the law under consideration is of that character. The license exacted is a burden laid upon the animals per capita. It is a property tax. The burden so imposed does not, as said in Pittsburgh, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
197 P. 704, 22 Ariz. 342, 1921 Ariz. LEXIS 140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-mahoney-ariz-1921.