134 A. 404 | Pa. | 1926
In 1917 the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission granted the defendant, Quaker City Cab Company, a New Jersey corporation, a certificate of public convenience; since which time it has been engaged in carrying passengers and their luggage for hire in the City of Philadelphia, where it operates some three hundred and twenty-five taxicabs and fifty limousines and touring cars. Each cab and car is propelled by its own power and operated on the city streets by a driver; the amount of fare is regulated by the distance traveled or time consumed. They have no fixed termini but some fifty stands throughout the city where they can be found or called by telephone; they also pick up passengers anywhere. The taxicab is the outgrowth of the automobile and came into general use about 1905, gradually superseding hacks and bus lines. Early in 1924 the auditor general, *165 approved by the state treasurer, settled and assessed a tax against defendant of eight mills on the dollar of its gross income, inter alia, for the six months ending December 31, 1923. Defendant appealed therefrom to the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County where by agreement the case was heard by the court without a jury, and the tax sustained in a very exhaustive opinion, reported in 29 Dauphin Co. R. 90. Thereupon defendant brought this appeal.
The tax was properly assessed under section 23 of the Act of June 1, 1889, P. L. 420, 431, which provides, inter alia, "That every railroad company, pipe line company, conduit company, steamboat company, canal company, slack water navigation company, transportation company, street passenger railway company, and every other company, joint stock association or limited partnership, now or hereafter incorporated or organized by or under any law of this Commonwealth or now or hereafter organized or incorporated by any other state . . . . . . and doing business in this Commonwealth, and owning, operating or leasing to or from another corporation, company, association, joint stock association or limited partnership, any railroad, pipe line, slack water navigation, street passenger railway, canal or other device for the transportation of freight or passengers or oil . . . . . . shall pay to the state treasurer a tax of eight mills upon the dollar upon the gross receipts of said corporation, company or association, limited partnership, firm, or copartnership, received from passengers and freight traffic transported wholly within this State."
A statute should be construed primarily by its language and the legislature is presumed to have used words in their ordinary signification: Boyle v. Phila. and Reading R. R. Co.,
We have considered the contention so earnestly urged that the general words "every other company" should be taken with reference to the preceding particular language and be confined to companies of like character, under the rule of ejusdem generis. The rule, as a general proposition, is sound, but a taxicab is not of a nature so substantially different from the instrumentalities expressly mentioned as to be excluded therefrom. For example, a street car and a taxicab each carries passengers for hire, each uses the public streets and whether the motive power is gasoline or electricity, or whether it travels on a fixed track or on the general pavement, is not of controlling importance; both are devices for the accomplishment of the same end. In Com. v. Hawkins, 14 Pa. District R. 592, Mr. Justice FRAZER, then President Judge of the courts of Allegheny County, construing a statute authorizing the municipality to impose a license fee on wagons, carts, cars, drays, coaches, omnibuses and every other description of carriages, held it included automobiles, although unknown when the statute was enacted. In the course of the opinion he says: "That they [automobiles] were unknown when the Act of 1868 was passed, is not material. If they are carriages *168
'of any description,' the city has the right to regulate and license them, as we find nothing in the act limiting the power of the municipality to the different classes of vehicles at that time in general use. An automobile being essentially a carriage, we know of no reason why such vehicles should be exempt from license and regulation when other 'carriages' are subject to the same." Of like import is Newman v. Arthur,
That for eighteen years after the advent of taxicab companies taxes were not assessed against them under the act in question is an administrative construction favorable to defendant, but cannot prevail against the plain language of the statute. The state cannot be prejudiced by the neglect of its officers to settle and assess a tax: Delaware Division Canal Co. v. Com.,
Section 14 of the Act of June 1, 1889, P. L. 426 (changed by subsequent legislation), authorizes the levying of a county tax of three mills on the value thereof on "hacks, cabs and other vehicles used for transporting passengers for hire, except steam and street passenger railway cars." It is, however, of no moment here whether taxicabs fall within the designation of hacks, cabs, etc., for that imposes a local tax on property, while section 23 imposes a state tax on business or income, so it is not double taxation, although such may be imposed by express authority of the legislature: Com. v. Harrisburg L.
P. Co.,
Appellant contends the statute under which the tax was assessed, as construed by the trial court, is unconstitutional as violative of section 1 of article IX of the state Constitution, which requires uniformity of taxation on the same class of subjects, and also of section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the federal Constitution which provides, inter alia, that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty and property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This contention is based on the assertion that individuals engaged in a like taxicab business are not subject to the tax; whether they are is not shown and in any event is immaterial, as the right to classify for purposes of taxation is well settled: Schoyer et al. v. Comet Oil Ref. Co.,
It would unduly prolong this opinion to discuss all other legislation, which it is claimed affects the construction of that here in question, or to refer to all the authorities which the industry of able counsel has brought to our attention. We might say, however, that the provision of the Act of June 15, 1911, which we condemned in Schoyer et al. v. Comet Oil Ref. Co., supra, so far as it gave a different method for the collection of debts due the Commonwealth by corporations from those due by individuals, had no reference to classification for purposes of taxation. We find nothing in any of the statutes or authorities cited to create a doubt as to the correctness of the conclusions of the trial court. We have not overlooked the rule that in construing a tax statute the taxpayer must receive the benefit of the doubt (Schwab v. Doyle,
The judgment is affirmed. *171