174 Ga. 678 | Ga. | 1932
Tbe Underwriters Salvage Company of New York brought a petition for injunction against the City of Atlanta and J. Ben Daniel, marshal of that city, in which these allegations were made: A certain execution issued by the marshal in favor of the City of Atlanta against petitioner was levied on certain of its personal property, under an ordinance which provides for a general business license tax designated: “Salvage, $240 per annum;” The marshal has arbitrarily levied said tax as against the Underwriters Salvage Company of New York, which company petitioner avers does not come within the classification provided by said ordinance, as it does not do a business of salvage within the meaning of said ordinance. Said ordinance was designed to reach those companies doing a retail business in salvage. Petitioner is not engaged in the salvage business in the sense that the license tax of $240 per year was imposed, but it is an agent of various insurance companies, and all of the capital stock of the said corporation is owned by insurance carriers. It is engaged in the business of reconditioning stocks of goods which are burned or damaged by fire and water, and all reconditioned property is sold for the benefit- of such insurance companies and the assured. Petitioner derives no profit or benefit from such reconditioning and
The court sustained a general demurrer and dismissed the petition, and the plaintiff excepted.
The tax ordinance under which the execution issued provides that all persons, firms, or corporations engaged in any business or occupation in the City of Atlanta shall be required to register their various businesses, trades, or occupations, and obtain a license, for which they shall pay the amount therein set opposite such' business, trade, or occupation. Among the businesses so listed was that of salvage, and the amount set opposite the word “salvage” in said classified list was $240. In the same list there is also an item “agents, not otherwise specified.’* The contention of the plaintiff is that it is not in the salvage business, and that it is liable only for $60, the amount set opposite the words “agents, not otherwise specified.” It insists that its business is not that of salvage, but
The ordinance imposes a tax of $240 upon “salvage.” The word “salvage” has a very broad, denominative, generic meaning. “Salvage” applies to the whole genus, which includes several species of salvage. Originally the word “salvage” was no doubt confined to that which was saved from shipwreck. "1. The act of saving a ship or property from loss, as from the sea, fire, or pirates; hence, any act of saving property. 2. Mar. Law. The compensation allowed to persons by whose voluntary exertions a vessel, her cargo, or the lives of those belonging to her are saved from danger or loss in case of wreck, capture,- or other marine misadventure: termed civil salvage, as distinguished from military salvage, which consists in the rescue of property from the enemy in time of war. 3. That which is saved from a wrecked or abandoned vessel; property rescued from shipwreck-; hence, anything saved from destruction.” New Standard Dictionary. From the terms of the ordinance as set forth in the petition it is plain that all of the acts
And so in this case the word “salvage” has no reference to the particular individual or corporation which may own the property, or through its agents may salvage goods damaged by fire; and this even though what is done in salvaging be a mere incident in its business of adjusting losses it has incurred in complying with the terms of its contracts of insurance. In this connection, we deem the following ruling in Morgan v. State, 140 Ga. 202, 205 (78 S. E. 807), peculiarly applicable: “The tax is on the business, and applies more definitely to the place of business. If one person maintains but one place of business, he pays one tax; if he maintains more, he is required to pay a correspondingly greater number of taxes. That a person maintaining such a place of business might own the goods which are kept or sold, or might deal with them as agent for another, or that they might be manufactured within this State or beyond the limits of this State, would not affect his liability to pay one tax for each place of business maintained by Kim.” In the light of this ruling, the term “ salvage,” upon which a tax of $240 is imposed, would apply to the place of business where salvaging is carried on. It would be immaterial who owned the goods to be salvaged, or what was necessary to be done to protect the value of the goods from loss which might ensue were they not reconditioned as alleged in the petition, and immaterial that he who conducted the business was merely the agent of another. The city council of Atlanta had the power to place a license tax upon the general business of salvage. They had a similar right to subdivide
The learned and able counsel for the plaintiff cite, in support of the proposition that a business tax can not be lawfully imposed on an element incident to or a part of such business, the decisions in City of Colquitt v. Jeffords Oil Co., 170 Ga. 605 (154 S. E. 140), and Wofford Oil Co. v. Boston, 170 Ga. 624 (154 S. E. 145). The rulings in these cases are not in conflict with what we are holding, because the present case is easily distinguished by the difference in its facts from those with which the court was dealing in the cases cited. In the first, the exception was to the grant of an interlocutory injunction. This court affirmed the judgment. It is true that the question was whether that part of the city ordinance taxing businesses or corporations was applicable to the Jeffords Oil Company. This court held that “The delivery by truck of gasoline qr oil to the retail dealers in other towns and localities where gasoline is retailed may well be classed as an incident to the main business of the Jeffords Company, and as such is not taxable.” But the business of salvaging is not a mere incident in the business of the