10 Pa. Super. 104 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opinion by
This suit was brought by plaintiff against the defendant to recover commissions earned as a real estate broker in the sale of defendant’s real estate. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for the full amount of his claim subject to the point reserved: “ Whether the receipt or license from the city treasurer of Scranton, dated October 4,1894, is, in law, such a license as authorized the plaintiff to act as a real estate broker in said city and relieved him from the penalties of the acts of 1841 and 1849, and enables him to recover commissions as such.” It is conceded that if the plaintiff had no license as a real estate broker for the year in which the commission was earned he cannot recover: Johnson v. Hulings, 103 Pa. 498. The receipt which the plaintiff was allowed to offer in evidence under objection was as follows: “ City of Scranton, ss: Scranton, Pa., October 1,1894. Received of C. P. Jadwin for the use of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Ten Dollars, which entitles him a real estate agent dealer of the thirteenth class within the City of Scranton for one year from the first day of May, A. D. 1894. (Signed) R. G. Brooks, City Treasurer. ” This receipt was offered in evidence by the plaintiff as his license to act as a real
The decision of this question involves an examination of the different acts of assembly regulating the appointment of mercantile appraisers and the issuing of licenses to real estate brokers. The initial act on this subject is the Act of May 27, 1841, P. L. 896, which applied only to stock brokers, exchange brokers and bill brokers. By its terms they were to pay annually into the treasury of the proper county for the use of the commonwealth the sums mentioned for the different kinds of brokers therein described, for which they were to receive a new commission authorizing them to conduct their business as stock, exchange or bill brokers. Section 5 of this act imposed a penalty of $500 for each and every offense upon any such brokers who should exercise the business without having such a commission. By the 5th section of the act of April 16, 1845, P. L. 532, it was enacted that for the purpose of securing the tax authorized to be assessed on wholesale dealers and retailers of merchandise, the courts of common pleas of the counties of Allegheny and Philadelphia, were authorized and empowered to appoint a person of suitable qualification in each county who should be styled the “appraiser of mercantile taxes, whose duty it shall be tó ascertain and assess the dealers as aforesaid, in accordance with the provisions of the several acts of assembly regulating the tax upon vendors of merchandise, and the said appraiser shall take an oath or affirmation to discharge his duties faithfully and impartially.” Section 6 of this act provides that the appraisers shall prepare a list of all dealers in the county, arranging them in their several classes, and shall furnish to each a written or printed notice of their several classifications, “giving notice to each at the same time of the place and time at which appeals may be made from said classifications:....” Section 7 provides that if any person is dissatisfied because he is not properly assessed, the appraiser is to administer an oath to him, “ and interrogate him as to the amount of his sales for the previous year, and if the appraiser shall be satisfied upon such investigation that such person or firm is not properly assessed, he shall increase or reduce the assessment, as the ease may be; and in all cases the persons or firms so assessed, if they are
Thus stood the law in reference to this subject until the year 1867, when the Act of March 80, P. L. 630 was passed. This act made the select council of the city of Scranton commissioners for the purpose mentioned in the 6th section of the said act, and then in the 7th section provided, inter
Appellant insists that the third section of the act of 1887, providing that “the appointment of mercantile appraisers shall be made annually by the county commissioners, except in cities of the first-class ” does not repeal the provisions of
Moreover, it is to be observed that this rule is not applied as rigorously by the courts when considering legislation, whose purpose is to bring about uniformity in the affairs of cities, counties, boroughs and townships throughout the state. In Com. v. Macferron, 152 Pa. 244, the court held that the rule was not applicable to classification acts, and that a city which passed by increase of population from one class to another lost
We are to be guided by the light of these decisions in decid
Judgment affirmed.