State v. . Lowe

122 S.E. 372, 187 N.C. 524, 1924 N.C. LEXIS 329

• Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decided: April 9, 1924
• Status: Published

Opinion

Hoke, J.

Under our decisions construing this or statutes of similar import, it is held that the license tax imposed by the law is for engaging in.the business of procuring labor for employment in another State, and does not apply or extend to a case where one corporation or individual is in a special instance procuring hands for his own work. Lane v. Comrs., 139 N. C., 443; S. v. Sheppard, 138 N. C., 579; Carr v. Comrs., 136 N. C., 125.

In Carr v. Comrs. it was held that Laws 1903, ch. 247, sec. 74, imposing a license tax on emigrant agents, does not apply to a person who comes into this State and employs hands to work for him in another State.

And in Lane’s case, where an officer of a corporation had come into this State and, without paying the license tax, had hired hands to be employed in present work for bis company in another State, Associate Justice Connor, delivering the opinion, said: “This case, in our opinion, comes within the principle of Carr v. Comrs., 136 N. C., 125, the only difference between the two cases being that in one the plaintiff hired hands for himself, while in the other he hired them for a corporation, of which he was a director and manager in respect to the work for which the hands were employed.”

The facts as set forth in the special verdict, showing that this was a single instance where defendant, by direction of the company’s superintendent, employed a lot of hands for his company for presently doing the work of which he had special charge, the case, in our opinion, comes directly within the principle of the above-cited cases, and the verdict and judgment acquitting defendant is affirmed.

No error.