35 A.2d 135 | Md. | 1943
The appellee, James Matthew English, at the time of the institution of the proceedings in this case, was the owner of a trailer worth about $600, consisting of living and sleeping quarters and a kitchenette, from which the wheels had been removed and which was resting on wooden blocks at Heintzeman's Trailer Grove in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He, together with his family had been occupying this trailer house as a residence, place of abode and habitation continuously during the whole of the year 1942, and to date in 1943. This trailer house is not being used as a place of business or for any occupation, trade or calling, but it is exclusively a home for the appellee and his family. He pays a weekly rental to the landowner of $3 a week and pays for all electric current used in this trailer house. He also paid the license fee to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles for the years 1942 and 1943, as provided in the 1939 Code, Article 56, § 157. This trailer was duly assessed in the amount of $100 by the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County for State and County property taxes for the year 1943, and under this assessment, as personal property, taxes were paid to the Treasurer of Anne Arundel County in the amount of $2.46. The appellee has been a resident of Anne Arundel County continuously since the year 1941, *517 and has been continuously employed since that time in the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipbuilding Company plant at Fairfield in said county. Some trailers at that camp were worth around $2,500 and all have sleeping quarters and cooking quarters, and the majority also have living quarters and ice boxes. It is stipulated and agreed that the Heintzeman's Trailer Camp, where this trailer is located, has been fully examined by the Health Commission of Anne Arundel County and that it complies with the health regulations now enforced, as does also the appellee's trailer.
The General Assembly of Maryland, at the 1943 session, passed an Act, Chapter 983, applicable only to Anne Arundel County, now Article 2, § 486A, 2, § 486B, 2, § 486C, 2, § 486D and 2, § 486E of the Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland, 1930 Edition, which was duly signed, the essential parts of which, for the purpose of this case it is necessary to quote, being as follows:
"486A. On and after June 15, 1943, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to maintain, reside in or operate in Anne Arundel County any trailer used or to be used in the habitation or living quarters of any person or persons, without having secured a license for the maintenance of each such trailer from the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. The annual license fee for each such trailer shall be Thirty ($30.00) Dollars per year, accounting from June 1, 1943, and June 1st in each year thereafter. * * *.
"All sums received by the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for issuance of trailer licenses shall be paid over monthly to the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County and expended by it as a part of the general funds of Anne Arundel County.
"486B. The tenant or lessee of a trailer shall be the person charged with the primary responsibility of securing a license for the use of said trailer in accordance with Section 486A. If the owner, operator, tenant, or lessee of a trailer fails to secure a license, the license fee shall become a lien on such trailer. The lien on such *518 trailer may be enforced by sale at public auction by the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County, after notice by advertisement for two successive weeks in one or more newspapers of general circulation published in Anne Arundel County. In case any trailer remains unlicensed for a period of five days, the owner of the land on which such trailer is located shall immediately notify the Building Inspector. It shall be the duty of the Building Inspector to enforce the provisions of this sub-title.
"486C. Any person, firm or corporation operating, maintaining or residing in a trailer in Anne Arundel County without having secured a license, as required by Section 486A shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction, shall be fined not more than Twenty-five ($25.00) Dollars for each such violation, and each day that such violation shall continue shall be deemed a separate offense.
"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That if any provision, clause, sentence, phrase, or part of this Act, or *519 the application thereof to any person, firm or corporation or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of this sub-title and the application of such provisions to other persons, firms and corporations and circumstances shall not be affected thereby."
The appellee filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County on June 15, 1943, alleging in substance the facts above stated and further that said Act of 1943, Chapter 983, supra, is illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory and unconstitutional and asked in said bill that said Act be declared unconstitutional, illegal and void. After answer filed by the County Commissioners of Anne Arundel County, testimony was taken in open court. On the 6th day of August, 1943, that court passed a decree declaring that Chapter 983 of the Acts of 1943 was unconstitutional, null and void and ordered the defendants to pay the costs. An appeal is taken to this court from that decree.
In approaching this question, this court is mindful that the presumption is in favor of the validity of the law and it assumes that the Legislature intended a lawful enactment. A reasonable doubt as to its constitutionality is enough to sustain the Act. We cannot be concerned with the question of policy or the wisdom of the statute, as such questions of usefulness of the law, policy and expediency are for the Legislature. Baltimore v.State,
The question therefore for our decision is whether this taxing measure is forbidden by the Constitution of the United States and by the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the State of Maryland and more specifically by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and by Articles 15 and 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights.
It is apparent that this Act is essentially a revenue-producing measure. The flat tax of $30 per year has no relation as to the cost to the county to enforce the statute. By payment of the tax, the licensee receives a license and no other conditions are required. There is no provision in the Act as to compliance with health regulations. When a person pays his $30 tax, he gets his trailer license, and there are no other conditions to be complied with in order to get that license. This makes it a revenue measure. It cannot therefore be held constitutional on the grounds that it is enacted under the police power. Judge Marbury said in the recent case of Maryland Theatrical Co. v. Brennan,
Let us first inquire whether this legislation is forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and Article 23 of the Declaration of Rights of Maryland.
The Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution, of course, prohibits the denial of equal protection of the laws and the deprival of property without due process of law. Article 23 of the Declaration of Rights of Maryland prohibits the disseizing of a person's freehold, liberty or privileges except by the Law of the Land.
This court has previously ruled that Article 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution and the term, "due process of law," as used in said amendment, are synonymous with the expression, "Law of the Land," as used in Article 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights.Oursler v. Tawes, supra, 483; Niles, Constitutional Law, page 46.
As to the alleged arbitrary and discriminatory classification and deprivation of property without due process of law by the Legislature in this Act, courts of last resort in many of the States of the Union have passed upon these matters. Of course, State constitutional provisions relative to raising revenue for the support of the respective State governments are by no means uniform. Although these decisions are helpful, they are not in accord and, of course, are not controlling in this case. Ourslerv. Tawes, supra, 481. However, this court adopted in that case at page 483 of 178 Md., at page 768 of 13 A.2d, a construction of what is meant by these two expressions where Judge Mitchell said: "First of all, it may be observed that the Federal Constitution has not undertaken to lay down any hard and fast rule with respect to due process of law, the equal protection of the laws, or as to privileges and immunities; and as tersely summarized inBoard of Com'rs, etc., *522 v. Johnson County,
Although the State, for the purpose of raising taxes, has the right to impose upon members of a class tax burdens, it cannot be exerted so as to impose upon members of a selected class burdens which are not shared by others in like circumstances. As this court said through Judge Offutt in the case of Dasch v.Jackson,
Article 15 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, as amended by the Act of 1914, Chapter 390, provides: "* * * that the General Assembly shall, by uniform rules, provide for separate assessment of land and classification and sub-classifications of improvements on land and personal property, as it may deem proper; and all taxes thereafter provided to be levied by the State for the support of the general State Government, and by the counties and by the City of Baltimore for their respective purposes, shall be uniform as to land within the taxing district, and uniform within the class or subclass of improvements on land and personal property which the respecting taxing powers may have directed to be subjected to the tax levy; yet fines, duties or taxes may properly and justly be imposed, or laid with a political view for the good government and benefit of the community." This court said in reference to this amendment, in the case of Oursler v. Tawes, supra, 178 Md., *526 pages 485 and 486, 13 A.2d, page 769: "In connection both as to classifications and exemptions it may also be observed that a different construction has been placed by this court upon the concluding paragraph of Article 15, from that placed upon the preceding paragraphs. The late Judge Alfred Niles in his work on Maryland Constitutional Law, pages 32, 33, makes the following comment: `The last clause of the 15th article of the Declaration of Rights is considered as enlarging the taxing power of the Legislature. And taxes laid under this enlargement of power are of a different class from "property taxes" * * *. The rule of equality is applicable to "property taxes." "Taxes laid with a political view" are not "property taxes" but are such taxes as the Legislature may levy, not upon property, but upon occupations, privileges, contracts and things of that nature, and as to those the rule of equality is not applicable. * * * Summing up the rule and its exceptions, we may say, in a general way, that the Courts, in construing this article, have separated the taxation which may be levied upon the inhabitants of Maryland into two kinds: the one, taxes upon the individual according to his property; the other, taxes laid with a political view for the good government and benefit of the community. As to taxes of the first class, the Legislature is prohibited from taxing the same individual twice in regard to the same piece of property. * * * It may, however, exempt certain classes of property with a view to the good of the community, provided the classification is reasonable, and the exemption does not produce material inequality. * * * In regard to the second class * * * there seems to be no limitation laid upon the power of the Legislature by this article, except that such taxes are not to be laid upon property as such'." Judge Niles, at page 34, supra, in reference to special taxes laid with a political view, also said: "These taxes are, of course, subject to the provisions in the State and Federal Constitutions, forbidding the taking of property without due process of law, and the denial of the equal protection of the law." *527
It is claimed that the tax in question is one laid with a political view and is not a property tax, but such a one at the Legislature may levy upon occupations, privileges, contracts and things of that nature, and therefore there is no limitation laid upon the power of the Legislature by this Article except that this tax be not laid upon property. It is contended that this is a "use" tax and not a property tax. Whether a particular tax is one on property or on an occupation or privilege cannot be determined by the application of any fixed rule. "Ordinarily a tax imposed on the carrying on of any business, trade, profession or calling is not a tax on property as distinguished from an occupation tax." Cooley on Taxation, Section 675, pages 3380, 3381. It was said in the case of Blaustein v. Tax Commission,
Appellants contend that the payment of this privilege tax or license tax can be avoided by not using his trailer as a place of habitation. However, a trailer is constructed essentially as a place in which to live. This is axiomatic. In the instant case the trailer has sleeping quarters, a living room and a kitchenette. What else could it be used for other than a place of habitation? It is so used when persons travel in it. It is contended that, if the trailer were placed in storage, the owner would thereby avoid the tax. To do this would amount practically to confiscation of the property. Of what value is a trailer in storage? The practically exclusive use of a trailer is a place of habitation, and in the instant case, the owner who pays the personal property taxes and the motor vehicle tax on the trailer is compelled to pay additional tax for living in it. By no stretch of the imagination could occupying the trailer as a place of habitation be considered an occupation or a business. Everyone does not have to go in business, but everyone has to have a home or shelter. Occupying a home is not a privilege. It is essentially a necessity. Here shelter is necessary to life itself. To meet this necessity, the trailer is constructed as a place of habitation, and it is the principal use to which it can be put.
If the tax is one upon a single use to which a certain property can be put, it can be classified as a tax upon the use of the property and not upon the property itself. For instance, the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Bromley v.McCaughn,
It is also contended that in placing the tax upon the person who makes the particular use of the trailer rather than upon the owner, the Legislature has plainly designated *531
that it is a tax upon the particular use and not upon the ownership. The legislative designation is entitled to much weight, but it is not controlling. It cannot be made an occupation or license tax by calling it so. Dawson v. KentuckyDistilleries, supra. The occupant is the owner. While the occupant is primarily responsible for the payment of the tax, if not paid, it becomes a lien on the trailer, which requires the owner to pay the tax or lose his property, and in the last analysis, the tax is the liability of the owner. The constitutional validity of a law is to be tested by what may by its authority be done. Stuart v. Palmer,
This Act, imposing a tax forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and by Articles 15 and 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, is unconstitutional, null and void.
Decree affirmed, with costs.