140 Ga. 188 | Ga. | 1913
Lead Opinion
The judge was authorized to find that the plaintiff, without a license so to do, in the county of Fulton, engaged in peddling chickens, eggs, and butter; and 'the only question is whether the peddling of such commodities renders the petitioner subject to the tax provided for in part 1, title 2, sec. 2, par. 27, of the general tax act of 1909, as now embodied in the Civil Code, § 946. After providing for a number of specific and occupation taxes, the act imposed such a tax of fifty dollars, in each county where the business was conducted, “Upon every peddler and traveling vendor of any patent or proprietary medicines, or remedies, or appliances of any kind, or of special nostrums, or jewelry, or stationery, or drugs, or soap, or of any other kind of merchandise or
Judgment reversed.
Concurrence Opinion
We concur in the interpretation placed on the tax act by Mr. Justice Atkinson. A familiar canon of construction of statutes is that effect should be given to every word in the statute, if possible; If the legislature meant to impose
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. Two cases were argued in this court, and are controlled by the opinions filed by the majority. In each case it appeared that the plaintiff in error was peddling on the streets of Atlanta. In the one case he was peddling chickens, eggs, butter, etc. In the other case he was peddling fruit. The only question is, whether peddlers of such merchandise or commodities fall within the terms of section 946 of the ■Civil Code, which reads as follows: “Upon every peddler and traveling vendor of any patent or proprietary medicines, or remedies, or appliances of any kind, or of special nostrums, or jewelry, or stationery, or drugs, or soap, or of any other kind of merchandise or commodity whatsoever (whether herein enumerated or not), peddling or selling any such goods, wares, medicines, nostrums, remedies, appliances, jewelry, stationery, soap, drugs, or -other merchandise, fifty dollars in each county where the same or any of them are peddled, sold, or offered for sale.55 The majority of the court are of the opinion that, under the doctrine or rule of construction generally referred to as the doctrine of “ejusdem generis/5 the words, “or of any other kind of merchandise or commodity whatsoever (whether herein enumerated or not)/5 should be construed as limited to merchandise or commodities of a similar genus or kind to those specifically enumerated, and that, so construed, they do not include the merchandise or commodities which the plaintiffs in error were peddling. In this view we can not concur.
In Black on Interpretation of Laws, 141, the rule is thus stated: “It is a general rule of statutory construction that where general words follow an enumeration of persons or things, by words of 'a
Numerous citations could be made in support of the rules announced by these authorities. One illustrative case will suffice. In Webber v. Chicago, 148 Ill. 313 (36 N. E. 70), an ordinance provided for licensing “circuses, menageries, caravans, side-shows, and concerts, minstrels or musical entertainments,, given under á covering of canvas, exhibitions of monsters or of freaks of nature, variety and minstrel shows, athletic ball, or similar games of sport, and all other exhibitions, performances and entertainments not here enumerated, given in a building, hall, or under canvas or other .tíover, or within any enclosure.” It was held that this ordinance included horse-races within an enclosure. The court declared that the maxim of ejusdem generis was only one of many rules of construction to ascertain the intent of the legislature, and that “where, from the whole instrument, a larger intent may be gathered, the rule under consideration will not be applied to defeat such larger intent.”
In the light of these rules of construction, let us see whether the general words in the statute under consideration should be given a restricted meaning, so as to include only merchandise and commodities of the same kind or genus as those specifically mentioned. The general tax act of 1902 imposed a specific tax “upon every traveling vendor of proprietary medicines, special nostrums, jewelry, paper, soap, or other merchandise, fifty dollars in each county where they may offer such articles for. sale.” In Standard Oil Co. v. Swanson, 121 Ga. 412 (49 S. E. 262), decided in December, 1904, it was held that, under the doctrine of ejusdem generis, the general words “or other merchandise” would be construed in connection with the words of specific enumeration, and that they did not embrace vendors of merchandise not ejusdem generis (that is. not of a like kind or genus) with the articles expressly enumerated
In the light of the history of this legislation, the previous construction placed upon the language by this court, and the change thereupon made by the legislature, to hold that the words “merchandise or commodity” shall be limited to merchandise or commodity of like kind only, in the face of the declaration of the legislature that it means any other kind of merchandise or commod
In the case of Standard Oil Co. v. Swanson, supra, no reference was made to -the question whether the enumerated articles were themselves of like kind or genus, and it may be well doubted whether it can be declared that patent medicines and stationery are of the same genus, or that jewelry and drugs belong to the same family of merchandise. If the enumeration itself includes different genera, as stated in the text-books above cited, the doctrine of ejusdem generis has little or no application' as to the words under discussion.
We recognize the fact that sections 946 and 947 of the Civil Code may seem in some respects to overlap each other. Thus, in section 946, among the enumerated articles are “any patent or proprietary medicines or remedies, or appliances of any kind,” and in section 947, after enumerating certain patented articles, occur the words “or any other patented article.” But this involves another rule of construction, that the legislature is not to be deemed as having conflicted with itself in the same act, and that a construction will be placed upon two parts of an act so as to harmonize them, if practicable. Where general words are used in one part of an act in reference to requiring a specific tax, and in another part of the same act certain classes of things are made subject to a different tax, they will be considered as taken from under the previous general enumeration. This is illustrated by two different parts of section 947. In the first part are general words in regard to peddling
With the question of the expediency of the legislation this court has nothing to do. That is for the legislature. The only question is, what did that body enact ? Moreover, the illustration from newsboys does not seem to us very convincing, as newsboys have never been classified as peddlers or traveling vendors under any law, so far as we are aware.