111 Ala. 369 | Ala. | 1895
The defendant was convicted, and fined twenty'dollars, for the violation of a city ordinance, from which he prosecutes this appeal. The city imposed a license tax upon occupations and business carried on within its limits; and upon persons keeping “marble yards” the license tax was twenty dollars. The city ordinance reads as follows : “Any person who shall engage in any business for which a license is required, before having paid for and taken out such license, shall upon conviction be fined,” &c. The charter confers upon the city ample authority to tax business and avocations, and to impose penalties for failing to take out a license. The license tax and the ordinance are within the authority conferred by the legislature. The contention of the defendant is that the legislature exceeded its constitutional authority in conferring the power upon the city, and that the city charter in this respect is null and void. The argument is based upon the following
The constitutional provision does not — and was notintended to operate as an ordinance or legislative enactment or as a general law for the government of the people of the State. Its sole purpose was to limit the power of the legislature so as to prohibit it from conferring the specified authority upon municipal corporations. The first question is, what is meant by the term “the general laws of this State,” as used in the constitutional provision, and is the act of the legislature above cited — a “general law,” within its meaning? Courts have generally classified statutes, as general, public, special or local, and private. Our constitution refers to statutes as “general,” “local,” “special.” It is unnecessary to consider what constitutes local and special statutes. Any statute which affects the public at large, though operating within the limits of a particular locality, is generally declai’ed to be a public statute. — 23 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 144, 145, and cases cited in the notes; 3 Amer. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 695-7, and notes.
In specifying the limitations upon the powers of the legislative department, (Art. IV. §§ 23, 24,25 and 50,) the constitution uses the term “gsueral laws.” A proper construction of these constitutional provisions would exclude the defiziition of a “public statute” as distinguished from a general statute, that is a statute operating upon the public within the limits of a locality, less than the whole State./ The terms, “general law” and “public law” az’e frequently itsed synonymously,
This view of the case renders it unnecessary to consider in detail the real status of the act of February 18, 1887, supra. We will mention some of the difficulties which pertain in this statute. It purports to amend section 499 of the Code of Alabama. Section 499 of the Code amended thereby, is to be found only in the Code of 1876. Many of the provisions of the chapter in which section 493 of the Code is to be found had been superseded and repealed by subsequent acts of the legislature
We deem it unnecessary to pursue the discussion further . The act of the legislature conferring the authority upon the city of Birmingham to impose a license tax iá'nofc obnoxious to any provision of the constitution.'
The judgment of the city court is affirmed.