84 Mo. 156 | Mo. | 1884
This is a proceeding in the nature of
“Seo. 2. The following wharfage dues shall be collected from each and every boat of whatever kind or description, except such as are hereinafter exempt from paying wharfage, or for which a special rate of wharfage is hereinafter provided, for each and every time the same shall come within the harbor of the city and land at any public wharf or landing, or be made fast thereto or to anything thereto fastened, or shall bring a tow into the harbor, or shall receive or discharge any freight or passengers in this city, to-wit: Three cents for each ton of said boat’s burden, by custom house measurement, if said boat is owned by residents of St. Louis, and has been returned and assessed for taxation within the city of St. Louis during the year commencing on the first day of August, immediately preceding the day of the landing, of said boat, and five cents for each ton of said boat’s burden, by custom house measurement, if said boat has not been returned and assessed for taxation within the city of St. Louis during the year above described.”
“ Sec. 19. Every owner or person in charge of any boat, firewood, lumber, timber, logs, or other articles on . which wharfage or license is due, who shall, after demand has been made, fail or refuse to pay the same, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum double the amount of wharfage or license so due and owing. The payment of said fines and costs shall operate as a discharge in full of said demands.”
The cause was tried in the police court where plaintiff had judgment for $50.90 ; defendant appealed to the St. Louis court of criminal correction, where the judgment was for. $15.27; from which plaintiff appealed to the St. Louis court of appeals, and there recovered $50.90;
This ordinance conforms to the law for taxation of boats and vessels (R. S., p. 1369), and with the city charter (R. S., p. 1575), and has been adjudged valid in Packet Co. v. St. Louis, 100 U. S. 423, as to the right of the city to exact wharfage. The transportation company concedes the validity of the ordinance, but insists that three cents per ton, or $15.27, is the limit of its liability for wharfage on its barge. It is urged that the city demanded an extra two cents per ton as jpenalty for the failure to have the barge assessed for taxation. That, heeding the spirit and purpose of the ordinance, no penalty is in reality meant to be exacted for the failure to do what it was impossible to do. There is great force in this reasoning if we regard the difference between three cents per ton and five cents per ton as a penalty. In that view, it might well be urged that the provision was not intended to apply, and does not apply, to the
The evident purpose of the classification made by this ordinance is to make all boats contribute with approximate equality to the city’s revenues, since all equally enjoy the privileges afforded by its improved wharf. Those not assessed for taxation are required to pay a higher rate of wharfage than those that are assessed ; and thus it is sought to do justice between them. The ordinance, as -to the classification it makes, rests, I think, on the just principle that with equality of benefits should go equality of burdens. The company’s-officer, in arguing with himself and with the harbormaster, that his barge could not have been put into the-one class, did not observe that upon his own theory, it must have fallen into the other class.
The judgment of the court of appeals, being based upon a correct application of the law to the admitted facts of the case ought to be affirmed.