18 N.M. 211 | N.M. | 1913
OPINION OP THE COURT.
The first ground of the demurrer is in substance that the act of the legislature upon whjch the information is based, chap.,28, Session Laws 1912, is unconstitutional for the reason that the act embraces more than one subject and the subject is not clearly expressed in the title. The title of the act is, ‘‘An Act to Provide for State License on Automobiles.”
It is argued by appellee that the object of the act is two-fold: (a) To license automobiles, and (b) to raise revenue for road purposes.. The statute in question, sec. 3, cliaq). 28. Session Laws of 1912, provides that,
“The fee for a license under this act shall be ten (10) dollars annually * * * * .and such license fee shall be in addition to the ordinary property tax. ***** shall be paid to the Secretary of State * * * * and the said Secretary of State shall pay same over to the State Treasurer, who shall credit the amount thereof to the State Eoad Fund. Provided: That an additional fee of one (1) dollar for the issuance of any such license and of fifty (50) cents for the annual renewal thereof shall be collected from each-owner by the said Secretary of State. Provided further: The said fee of one (1) dollar and the said renewal fee of fifty (50) cents, together with all fees hereinbefore provided for and required to be paid for duplicates of tags or plates issued by the Secretary of State, and collected by him, shall be used for the purpose of defraying the expenses incident to the administration of this act in the office of said Secretary of State, and any surplus at the end of the fiscal year shall be turned over to the State Treasurer and credited to said road fund.”
The question for our present consideration, then, is, has the legislature by providing for a ten dollar license fee to be covered into the State Eoad Fund rendered the act void and unconstitutional by violating sec. 16 of art. IY of the State Constitution, -which provides that the subject of every bill shall be clearly expressed i,n its title, and no bill embracing more than one subject shall be passed except general appropriation bills, etc.?
The aim and necessity of this constitutional provision is apparent. The reason for its existence is a matter of history in.nearly all our States. Its purposes as outlined by Mr. Cooley, are:
First, to prevent hodge-podge or ‘‘log-rolling” legislation; second, to prevent surprise or fraud upon the legislature by means of provisions in bills of which the titles give no intimation, and which might therefore be overlooked and carelessly and unintentionally adopted; and third, to fairly apprise the people of the subjects of legislation in order that they may have opportunity of being heard thereon.
Cooley’s Const. Lim. (7th Ed.) 205.
Concerning the particularity required in stating the object of the bill, Mr. Cooley says that the general purpose of such constitutional provisions is accomplished when a law has but one general object, which is fairly indicated by its title; that to require every end and means necessary or convenient for the accomplishment of this general object to be provided for by a separate act relating to that alone, would be unreasonable and render legislation impossible.
Cooley’s Const. Lim. 205.
Bearing in mind that there is a general disposition to construe this constitutional provision liberally, rather than to embarrass legislation by a construction whose strictness is unnecessary to the accomplishment of the beneficial purposes for which it has been adopted, (Cooley’s Const. Lim. 209) we will pass to the consideration of whether this act of the legislature of 1912, (chap. 28) is objectionable because it contains more than one subject not clearly expressed in the title.
The great variance as to facts involved in the numerous cases we have examined leave us without many precedents to which we can point for the purpose of illustrating the principle which we have concluded is controlling as to this phase of the case.
We have found that a number of the State Constitutions contain the word object in the sections similar to the one here under consideration, while others contain the word subject. The Constitution of the State of Texas formerly contained the word object in its section upon this subject, and a later convention substituted the word subject therefor, which corresponds with our provision.
Judge Bonner, in Stone v. Brown, 54 Texas 341, observes that,
“It may be presumed that the convention has some reason for substituting a different word' from that which had been so long in use in this connection and that in the light of judicial expressions the word ‘subject may have been substituted as less restrictive than ‘object.
While appellee is not clear in his contention upon this first ground of the demurrer, we assume that the dual subjects referred to by him are to be classified as an attempted exercise of the police power by the general provision with respect to licensing automobiles, which clearly come within the title of the act, and an attempt at taxation for general revenue which it may be contended could not be included within the purview of the subject as expressed in the title of this act.
Mr. Cooley says:
Coole}'’s Constitutional Lim. 206.
The subject of the act of 1912 was “to provide for State-license on automobiles.” The disposition of the funds resulting from the collection of the license was perhaps even a necessary part of the act and certainly is not incongru■ous to the subject expressed in the title.
We fully agree with the views quoted, and are of the opinion that the act of 1912, chap. .28, did not contain more than one general subject, or at least that the subject was germane to that expressed in the title, if we concede, for the purpose of argument, that two subjects were included in the act. See,
Com. ex rel. Appellant v. Gregg, 161 Pa. 586;
Black’s Const. Law, pp. 382 and 384;
David’s Law of Automobiles, sec. 31.
(2) The second ground of the demurrer was that the act in question, chap. 28, Session Laws 1912, is void as imposing a tax that is not equal and uniform, and is violative of -sec. .1 of art. Will of the Constitution, in that the rate of taxation is not equal and uniform as to all vehicles, but is an arbitrary exaction levied upon all automobiles regardless of value.
The third ground of the demurrer raises the question of double taxation. . Thése objections falling under a general classification, will be considered together.
of the same class and was, therefore, a generaland not a special law. A similar holding was had in the ease of Christy v. Elliott, 216 Ills. 31, 1 L. R. A. (N. S.) 215.
See, David’s Law of Motor Vehicles, secs. 30 and 42;
Huddy’s Law of Automobiles, p. 42.
In the matter of double taxation, we believe that the case of Cleary v. Johnson, (N. J.) 74 Atl. 538, comes nearest to meeting conditions similar to those of the case now before us. In that case it was held that a legislative enactment providing for the payment of an annual fee for , the registration of an automobile could not be regarded as j double taxation, and therefore unconstiutional. We desire j to quote, with approval, somewhat extensively from this opinion; the Court said, in this connection;
It will be noted from the foregoing that the facts in evidence were not deemed sufficient to indicate tliat the statute was a revenue measure; in a later New Jersey ease, however, this issue was sqúarely before the court. The case being Kane v. State, 80 Atl. 453, and from the opinion we quote the following:
“The first contention made in his behalf is that the automobile law of 1908 is invalid, because the license fees exacted 'by it are not limited to the cost of registration and inspection, and the act is therefore intended as a revenue measure. In Cleary v. Johnston, supra, the proofs submitted were not considered by the Court to be demonstrative that the statute was a revenue measure; the Court, however, pointed out that if such was conceded to be its object the law was nevertheless not invalid on that account, for the reason that the imposition of license fees for revenue purposes was clearly within the sovereign power of the state. We agree with counsel of the plaintiff in error that the proofs taken in the present case satisfactorily show that the present automobile law is a revenue measure, but hold, in accordance with the view expressed by the Supreme Court and above adverted to, that in passing it the legislature was fully within the powers conferred upon it by the Constitution.”
It is also laid down in 37 Cyc. 753, 754, that,
37 Cyc. 754;
State v. Jones, 9 Idaho 693, 75 Pac. 819;
St. Louis v. Bircher, 7 Mo. App. 169;
Morgan v. Com., 98 Virginia 812, 35 S. E. 448.
In tlie case of. Kane v. State, supra, (80 Atl. 453), it was contended, as is also contended in the case now under consideration, that the imposition of a license tax is a property tax, and invalid because it is imposed without regard to the value of the property upon which it is laid. 'We fully concur in the holding there made that-the character of the imposition is not to be determined 'by the mode' adopted in fixing its amount, but that the imposition is a license or privilege tax charged in the nature of compensation for the damage done to the roads of the state by the driving of these machines over them, and is properly based, not upon the value of the machine, but upon the amount of the destruction caused by it.
37 Cyc. 731.
It has been held that a license is not a tax on property, and, therefore, is not affected by statutory provisions for ascertaining the value for purposes of taxation.
Fla. Cen. & P. Kailway Co. v. Columbia, 54 S. C. 266.
We have fully considered the remaining grounds of the demurrer, but do not consider it necessary to discuss these questions.
We conclude that the demurrer should have been, overruled, and that the judgment of the District Court must be reversed, and the cause remanded with instructions to overrule the demurrer, and it. is so ordered.