47 La. Ann. 275 | La. | 1895
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff enjoined the collection of taxes assessed against them on merchandise and machinery, claiming the property was employed in the manufacture of stationery, and exempt from taxation. From the judgment of the lower court, sustaining the exemption claimed, the city prosecutes this appeal.
The Constitution declares that property engaged in the manufac-tories of certain classes shall not be taxed. Among these classes is embraced manufactories of stationery. Constitution, Art. 207. Plaintiff's claim to be within this exemption, i. e., that their property is employed in the manufacture of stationery.
The proof shows that the plaintiffs keep a printing establishment. They buy paper, and they print on the paper bill heads, blank books, order blanks and other forms used in commercial business, and the plaintiffs cut the paper into the length and width required for such purposes. The Constitution uses the word manufacture in its ordinary sense. Its natural import is to produce an article, and in its common application refers to changing the raw material into some new and useful form. The Constitution itself is illustrative of the significance of the word intended by the exemption. The exemptions extend to cotton mills, manufactories of textile fabrics, leather, furniture, agricultural implements and others. Some of these manufactories deal with the article already changed from the raw material, others deal with the raw material, but in all these exemptions the Constitution contemplates manufac-tories that produce an article, not a mere addition or mode of use of an article already manufactured. The paper on which the plain
We have no function to revise questions of assessments unless the legality or constitutionality of the tax is involved, or the amount gives jurisdiction to this court. The assessment on plaintiffs’ stock in trade presents no question for revision here. Constitution, Art. 81; The First Municipality vs. Pease, 2 An. 538; Penn vs. The First Municipality, 4 An. 13. Our decision will only reverse that of the lower court in respect to the assessment of machinery.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the judgment of the lower court be avoided, annulled and reversed in so far as it enjoins the sale of the machinery; in other respects it be affirmed; and that plaintiffs pay costs.
Rehearing refused.