State v. Louisiana Oil Refining Corp.

160 So. 290, 181 La. 659, 1935 La. LEXIS 1521
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMarch 4, 1935
DocketNo. 33184.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 160 So. 290 (State v. Louisiana Oil Refining Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Louisiana Oil Refining Corp., 160 So. 290, 181 La. 659, 1935 La. LEXIS 1521 (La. 1935).

Opinions

LAND, Justice.

The state of Louisiana, through the Supervisor of Public Accounts, has brought the present suit to recover a tax of 4 cents per gallon, under the provisions of Act No. 6 of the Extra Session of the Legislature of 1928, as amended by Act No. 16 of 1932, on 1,188,-078 gallons of “motor fuel,” and %2 of 1 cent per gallon under Act No. 14 of 1932 as an inspection fee, with a penalty of 20 per cent, for delinquency in the payment of the tax and inspection fee, and 10 per cent, additional on the amount of the tax, inspection fee and penalty, as attorney’s fees.

The state alleges that defendant corporation is a “dealer” as defined by Act No..6 of the Extra Session of 192S, as amended, in “motor fuels” in the state of Louisiana, and that defendant corporation, between August 1, 1932, and February 23, 1934, did manufacture, blend or compound, and sell in the state of Louisiana 1,188,078 gallons of “motor fuel,” as defined by Act No. 6 of the Extra Session of 192S, as amended; said motor fuel being a petroleum product and being a volatile gas-generating liquid having a flash point below 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Defendant corporation filed a plea of unconstitutionality of Act No. 16 of 1932 upon the ground: “That the products upon which a tax was imposed by the provisions of Act No. 6 of 1928 [Ex. Sess.] were expressly restricted to those ‘commonly used to propel motor vehicles or motors’; that in so far as Act No. 16 of 1932 styled merely: ‘An Act to amend and re-enact Section 1 of Act No. 6 of 1928,’ purports to remove such restriction and include in the products to be taxed products other than those taxed under the original statute, contains new substantive matter for legislation and said amendatory act consequently is broader than its title, containing matters therein not expressed in such title, contrary to the provisions of section 16 of article 3 of the Constitution of 1921.”

From the judgment sustaining the plea of unconstitutionality, and dismissing the suit, plaintiff has appealed.

The question to be decided by the court, and the only question, is:

Does Act No. 16 of the Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature for the year 1932 comply with the requirements of section 16 of article 3 of the Constitution of 1921, which provides: “Every law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one object, and shall have a title indicative of such object”? (Italics ours.)

Act No. 16 of 1932 is entitled: “An Act To amend and re-enact Section' 1 of Act No. 6 of 1928, approved December 18, 1928, as amended by Act No. 8 of 1930, entitled: ‘An Act to provide revenues for the public highways of the State of Louisiana by levying a tax of four cents per gallon on all gasoline or motor fuel sold, used or consumed in the State of Louisiana for domestic consumption, as authorized by paragraph A, Section 22, Article VI, of the Constitution of Louisiana, of 1921, as amended, defining motor fuel. * * *(Italics ours.)

It is difficult to imagine in what way Act No. 16, of 1932 can be broader than its title, when the object of the act, as stated in its title, is to levy a tax of 4 cents per gal- *664 Ion “07i all gasoline or motor fuel sold, used or consumed in the State of Louisiana for domestic consumption”; “defining Tnotor fuel," etc. (Italics ours.)

Section 1 of the act levies a tax of 4 cents per gallon “on all gasoline, or motor fuel, sold, used or consumed in the State of Louisiana for domestic consumption,” and defines “motor fuel” as meaning “all volatile gas-generating liquids having a flash point below 110 degrees F.”

Act No. 16 of 1932 is “An Act To amend and re-enact Section 1 of Act No. 6 of 1928, approved December 18, 1928, as amended by Act No. 8 of 1930,” and sets forth in its title in full the title of the act to be amended and re-enacted.

It is manifest therefore that, under the title of tlie original act (Act No. 6 of 1928, Ex. Sess.), the term “motor fuel” could have been defined as meaning “all volatile gas-generating liquids having a flash point below 110 degrees F.,” instead of restricting the definition, by adding “commonly used to propel motor vehicles or motors.” . '

It was held in the Cedar Grove Refining Co. Case, 178 La. 810, 152 So. 531, 533, the Chief Justice being the organ of the court:

“On the merits, the only question is whether the expression ‘as defined by law,’ in section 22 of article 6 of the Constitution, as amended pursuant to Act No. 219 of 1928, means ‘as already defined by law,’ or leaves the Legislature free to change the definition of ‘motor fuels.’ * * *
“Manifestly, the very purpose of the expression ‘as defined by law’ was to le.ave it to the Legislature to define motor fuel, and to change the defi,niti07i as the Legislature might see fit to change it, within reasonable bounds. It is to be observed that the constitutional amendment declares also that the tax is ‘to be collected as prescribed by law.’ It is certain that the Legislature is’ thereby directed to prescribe the method of procedure, and not forbidden to depart from the method already prescribed. And so is the Legislature directed, and not forbidden, to define motor fuel.
“The ai’git77ie7it that this interpretation of the act of 1932 7nalces the text b7-oader than the title is founded upon the fact that the title refers to levying the tax ‘on all gasoline or motor fuel,’ etc. It is coiitended that a volatile gas-ge7ie7-ating liquid having a flash poi7it below 110 degrees F. is not a motor fuel unless it is ‘commonly Used to propel motor vehicles'or motoi-s.’ But that is a begging of the question, because the definition itself declares that- the term • ‘motor fuel’ means all volatile gas-generating liquids having a flash point below 110 degrees F. That definition does not go beyond the indicatio7i, in the title of the act, that it is an act to levy a taw upon ‘motor fuel.’ ” (Italics ours.)

Although the case of State v. Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 169 La. 167, 124 So. 769, is not referred to in the opinion in the Cedar Grove Refining Co. Case, yet the fact is that that case is not only referred to in the brief of the Cedar Grove Refining Co., Inc., on application for rehearing, on file in State of Louisiana v. Cedar Grove Refining Co., Inc., 178 La. 810, 152 So. 531; but it is said in this brief:

“This brief on rehearing is directed most strenuously to the argument that Act No. 16 *666 of 1932 is manifestly unconstitutional for the reason that the text is broader than the title of the Act. (Italics ours.)
“We had placed so much confidence in the argument which we presented to the Lower Court and which was sustained by it until we laid very little stress upon this phase of the case.

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Bluebook (online)
160 So. 290, 181 La. 659, 1935 La. LEXIS 1521, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-louisiana-oil-refining-corp-la-1935.