190 Mich. 620 | Mich. | 1916
Plaintiff brought suit in justice’s court to recover the contract price for services in preparing certain plans and specifications for a building which defendant contemplated erecting in the city of Grand Rapids, but which he afterwards abandoned. The case was determined in plaintiff’s favor, and afterward on appeal in the circuit court the same result was reached.
“SEC. 85. Any person doing business as an architect, in the city of Grand Rapids shall take out an annual license, and pay therefor an annual fee of five dollars, and shall furnish to the city of Grand Rapids a bond in the penal sum of one thousand dollars.
“And any person who shall be engaged in the planning or supervision of the erection,- enlargement or alteration of buildings for others and to be constructed by other persons than himself, shall be regarded as an architect within the provisions of this ordinance, and shall be held to comply to the same. * * *”
To this was attached a penalty for its violation.
It is the argument of counsel that the law will permit of no recovery in this case because the architect
“Where a license or certificate is required by statute as a requisite to one practicing a particular profession, an agreement of a professional character without such license or certificate is illegal and void. This is true, for example, of an agreement made by an unlicensed or uncertificated physician, an attorney at law, or a school teacher. The authorities are in accord on this point where the license is required for public protection and to prevent improper persons from acting in a particular capacity, and not for revenue purposes only. In the latter cases, as we have seen, the decisions are not in accord. The same is held where a license is required for the carrying on of a particular trade or business, as in the case of a wholesale or retail liquor dealer, a stockbroker, real estate or commercial broker, a pawnbroker, a printer, a peddler, a carpenter or builder, an innkeeper, the keeper of a stallion, a public car man, a grocer, a plumber, etc. In such instances agreements made without the requisite license are generally held to be void.” 9 Cyc. p. 478, and cáses cited.
And this court appears To have recognized this rule and followed it in the case of In re Reidy’s Estate, 164 Mich. 167 (129 N. W. 196). The rule also applies to the violation of an ordinance. Buckley v. Humason, 50 Minn. 195 (52 N. W. 385, 16 L. R. A. 423, 36 Am. St. Rep. 637). If the architect himself were attempting to recover for his fees in making the plans' and specifications, the case would come squarely within the cases out of which the foregoing rule has grown, but it is argued that the rule does not apply to this
But it is said the ordinance was never enforced, and therefore plaintiff was not bound by it. The mere fact that the city officials were not in a mood to enforce the ordinance and did not enforce it does not affect its validity. It was a rule of law in the city until repealed. We are of the opinion that the general rule of law applicable to such contracts applies, and that the trial court was in error in refusing to direct a verdict for defendant in accordance with the request;