138 Ky. 48 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1910
Affirming.
By the act approved March 29, 1902 (Acts 1902, c. 128, art. 11, subd. 2), section 4226, Ky. St., was made to read as follows: “Every life insurance company other than fraternal assessment life insurance companies not organized under the laws of this state, hut doing business therein, shall on the first day of July in each year, or within thirty days thereafter, return to the Auditor of Public Accounts for deposit in the insurance department a statement under oath, of all premiums receipted for on the face of the policy for original insurance and all renewal premiums received in cash or otherwise, in this state, or out of this state, on business done in this state during the year ending the thirtieth day of June last preceding or since the last returns were made, and shall at the same time pay into the state treasury a tax of two dollars upon each one hundred dollars of said premiums as ascertained.”
In Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co. v. Commonwealth, 128 Ky. 174, 107 S. W. 802, 33 Ky. Law Rep. 338, it was held by this court that under this act the tax of $2 was to be collected on each $100 of premiums in fact collected, hut not on the amount of the dividends allowed by the company and deducted from the gross amount of the premiums specified in the policies. The. insurance commissioner gave the statute the other construction holding that the tax of $2 should he paid on the gross amount of the premiums without any regard to the credit of dividends, and this construction was followed in the circuit court. After the controversy had arisen as to the proper construction of the act of 1902, and while the
The first question to be determined on the appeal is the meaning of the amendment. This is not difficult to see. It in terms provides that no deductions shall be made for dividends, and that premium receipts shall include dividends applied for premiums and additions. By a clerical error the words “or since the last returns were made” appear to have been misplaced. It seems that these words should have followed these words, “the 31st day of December.” But, however this may be, the language of the amendment leaves no doubt of what the Legislature intended. The question whether these dividends were to be deducted had been a matter of controversy between the insurance companies and the commissioner. The controversy had been taken to the circuit court, and had there been decided in favor of the commissioner’s view. The case had then been appealed to this court, and was pending here when the amendment was made by the Legislature. There appears from the amendment no other purpose than to make the statute conform to the view which the commissioner had entertained. To say that the act does not mean this is to give the words which the Legislature added to the section no force, and to say that the addition of them to the section meant nothing. This we cannot do. The legislative purpose being plain, it must be carried into effect, unless the act is unconstitutional.
Judgment affirmed.