170 N.E. 280 | Ill. | 1930
Plaintiffs in error, James Patten, Bob Kurfirst, Paul A. Fischer, Frank Spinuzza and Lloyd Fravel, were each separately charged in the municipal court of Chicago, by information, with operating a motor vehicle on the public highway in the city of Chicago without first procuring a license for the same, in violation of section 9 of the Motor Vehicle act. (Smith's Stat. 1927, p. 2388.) Each pleaded not guilty and waived trial by jury, and the cases were consolidated for trial. On a hearing before the court each defendant was found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine of $10 and also the costs, and in default of payment stand committed to the house of correction until the fine and costs shall be worked out at the rate of $1.50 a day or until paid. Upon writs of error from the Appellate Court for the First District the judgments of the municipal court were severally affirmed. Writs of error were severally sued out of this court by plaintiffs in error and the causes are here consolidated for hearing.
The question involved here is whether, upon a proper construction of section 9 of the act as it existed at the commencement of these prosecutions, a license fee is required for the use of a semi-trailer on public highways. *387
By section 1 of the act the term "motor vehicle" includes "trailers, or semi-trailers pulled or towed by a motor vehicle." Section 2 divides motor vehicles into two divisions, the second of which is "those vehicles which are designed and used for pulling or carrying freight." Section 3 fixes the maximum gross weight to be permitted on the road surface through the axle of any vehicle and the number of pounds per inch of width of tire under one wheel, and paragraph 5 of said section provides that "where trailers are used the length of any vehicle, or vehicles, combined with their trailers, shall not exceed sixty-five feet." Section 5 provides that "all motor vehicles and all trailers or other vehicles in tow thereof, or thereunto attached, operating upon the improved public highways, shall have tires of rubber or some material of equal resiliency," and that defective tires shall not be permitted to be used if so worn or otherwise damaged as to cause undue vibration or undue concentration of the wheel load on the surface of the road.
It is the contention of plaintiffs in error that a license for semi-trailers is not provided for, required or authorized under section 9 of the Motor Vehicle act, for no license fee is fixed as to semi-trailers. Section 9 in full is as follows:
"Sec. 9. All vehicles of the second division as described in section 2 of this act, which are designed or equipped or used for carrying freight, goods, wares or merchandise, and all vehicles of said first division which have been remodeled and are being used for such purposes, and all vehicles of said second division which are used for carrying more than seven persons shall pay to the Secretary of State for each calendar year from and after January 1, 1924, license fees for the use of the public highways of this State at the following rates, to-wit:
"(a) Vehicles having a gross weight of five thousand (5000) pounds and less, including the weight of the vehicle and maximum load, $12. *388
"(b) Vehicles having a gross weight of more than five thousand (5000) pounds and not more than twelve thousand (12,000) pounds, including the weight of the vehicle and maximum load, $22.50.
"(c) Vehicles having a gross weight of more than twelve thousand (12,000) pounds and not more than sixteen thousand (16,000) pounds, including the weight of the vehicle and maximum load, $75.
"(d) Vehicles having a gross weight of more than sixteen thousand (16,000) pounds and not more than twenty thousand (20,000) pounds, including the weight of the vehicle and maximum load, $100.
"(e) Vehicles having a gross weight of over twenty thousand (20,000) pounds, including weight of vehicle and maximum load, $150.
"(f) Tractors, traction engines or other similar vehicles used for hauling purposes, except as hereinafter provided shall pay the same fees according to their weight as herein-before required in this section of other vehicles. All trailers and semi-trailers used with a motor vehicle shall pay to the Secretary of State for each calendar year from and after January 1, 1924, license fees for the use of the public highways of this State at the following rates, to-wit:
"(a) Trailers having a gross weight of 2000 pounds, and less, including the weight of the trailer and maximum load, $6.
"(b) Trailers having a gross weight of more than 2000 pounds, and not more than 10,000 pounds, $25.
"(c) Trailers having a gross weight of more than 10,000 pounds, including the weight of the trailer and maximum load, $50."
The facts are not in controversy. All were practically stipulated. Each plaintiff in error operated a motor vehicle called a semi-trailer on the public highways, as charged, without being licensed so to do under the provisions of the Motor Vehicle act and without having applied for and obtained license to operate and without paying a license fee. *389
The undisputed evidence shows that there is a material difference between a trailer and a semi-trailer. While both are classed as motor vehicles by the Motor Vehicle act, this difference is recognized by the legislature in the portions of the act above quoted. A trailer, as shown by the evidence, is a unit in itself, has four wheels and can be propelled by any power, while a semi-trailer is two-wheeled and is absolutely useless unless it is attached to a tractor truck. The frame of the semi-trailer overlaps the frame of the truck, on the top of which frame is a horizontal turntable or fifth wheel, to which the front end of the semitrailer attaches, forming a six-wheeled unit. A semi-trailer carries a much less load than a trailer and its price is much less.
Defendant in error contends that all general provisions, terms, phrases and expressions in a statute must be liberally construed in order that the true intent and meaning of the legislature may be fully carried out and cites many cases in support of this rule of construction, among themPeople v. Fox,
From a perusal of the Motor Vehicle act as it then existed, it is evident that the legislature by that act intended to classify trailers and semi-trailers as different motor vehicles; that by section 9 its intention is manifest that semitrailers should pay a license fee and that by that section it intended to fix a license fee for semi-trailers. It is, however, just as manifest that by that section the legislature by some mistake or oversight failed to fix the amount of such fee and that it used therein no language which enables us to determine what amount it intended to fix as such license fee. This section was amended by the legislature in 1929 so as to fix license fees for semi-trailers.
A law must be complete in all its terms and conditions when it leaves the legislature, so that everyone may know, by reading the law, what his rights are and how it will operate when put into execution. (People v. Election Comrs.
The several judgments of the Appellate Court and the municipal court of Chicago here reviewed are reversed.
Judgments reversed.