118 F. 399 | 8th Cir. | 1902
after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.
The decree below is challenged in this court on two grounds only, the first and principal contention being that the lower court had no jurisdiction of the controversy because the amount involved was, as it is said, less than $2,000, exclusive of interest and costs. Incidentally it is also claimed that the complainants had an adequate remedy at law, and no right, for that reason, to appeal to a court of chancery for relief. Inasmuch as no attempt has been' made in the argument to defend the validity of the ordinance, and as counsel for the city have based their right to a reversal wholly on the two grounds above stated, we shall assume that the ordinance is invalid, as the lower court held, and proceed to inquire whether the amount involved was sufficient to confer jurisdiction and whether the case was properly cognizable by a court of equity.
Concerning the last of these questions, which will be noticed first, it is quite sufficient to say that the complaint which was filed in the lower court may be appropriately termed a “bill of peace.” Story, Eq. Jur. §§ 852, 853. It was filed to obtain a definite determination that the ordinance complained of was void, also to prevent harassing litigation, and to establish the complainants’ right to transact business in the city of Hutchinson, as it had been doing for some years, without complying with the terms of the ordinance. One paragraph of the bill, as heretofore shown, alleged that the city authorities, for the purpose of enforcing compliance with the ordinance, had already caused the arrest of their agents, and were threatening to make further like arrests, and to institute numerous criminal prosecutions, and thereby prevent them from receiving, storing, and making speedy deliveries of goods, as had been their habit. Now, conceding that the validity of the ordinance might have been tried in any one of the criminal prosecutions thus brought by the city, yet, as the right of appeal existed from any judgment which might have been rendered therein, it is apparent that months, and possibly some years, might have elapsed before the invalidity of the ordinance would have been
The other and broader objection to the jurisdiction, that the amount in controversy is inadequate to confer jurisdiction upon the federal court, is based upon the ground that as the bill was filed on August 29, 1900, and the tax from June 1, 1900, to December 31, 1900, was only $500, that was the sole sum in controversy. Counsel for the city say it was only claiming at the time $500, and that the right to collect that amount from the complainants was the only matter in controversy. We think, however, that this view of the case is too narrow and technical. The right which the complainants asserted was the right to transact their business in the city of Hutchinson as theretofore, without being subjected to the onerous and discriminating tax which the municipality had seen fit to impose. They averred that, if the city was left at liberty to enforce the tax in its own way by making daily arrests of its employés, they would eventually quit its service; that the complainants and all other nonresident merchants in their situation would be subjected to the cost and annoyance of defending repeated suits; that they would also be prevented from carrying on their business as they had theretofore done; that they would be compelled to transact business in competition with dealers residing in the city of Hutchinson who were-not subject to the tax; and that in this way they would sustain damages in a sum exceeding $2,000. These allegations were admitted by the demurrer to be true if they were material allegations. From the complainants’ standpoint, therefore,—■ and the case must be judged from their standpoint, and not exclusively from the standpoint of the city,—the amount involved in the litigation was not merely the license tax of $500 which accrued on June 1, 1900, but it was the total amount of their loss incident to the causes aforesaid, if the bill was not entertained, and if the city was left free to pursue its own course in enforcing the ordinance. Our attention has been invited to several cases which were brought to enjoin the collec