7 A.2d 334 | Pa. | 1939
The single question presented on this appeal is whether a hotel which conducts a dining room for the convenience of its guests is subject to the restaurant mercantile license tax imposed by the Act of April 25, 1907, P. L. 117, Section 1. (
The county mercantile appraiser assessed the hotel company $26.72 for 1937, and $33.00 for 1938, on the volume of business transacted in the dining room. It contested its liability for the tax, and appealed to the Board of Tax Appeals of Tioga County, which sustained the assessments. A further appeal was taken to the court of common pleas. From the decree of that court, declaring the assessments null and void, the Commonwealth appeals.
Is the hotel company "engaged in carrying on a restaurant business" within the meaning of the Act of 1907? It insists that its dining room is conducted, not as a separate business, but as an integral part of the hotel business, which, it contends, it was not the intention of the legislature to include within the classification of taxable business under the Act.
It is a part of the time-honored business of a hotel or inn to provide those who seek lodging with food and refreshment.2 It cannot be doubted that, where meals *174 are served, it is within the traditional scope of the hotel business as it is commonly understood. The relationship between innkeeper and guest is one which the law recognizes as distinct from that existing between the proprietor of an eating-house and a patron thereof, and arises from the historic duty of the innkeeper to afford protection to his guests, and to supply them with every convenience for the satisfaction of their needs. A hotel keeper and an innkeeper occupy the same status in the law.3
The common law distinction between the business conducted by a hotel and that of a restaurant has been consistently recognized by the legislature of this state. As early as the Act of May 31, 1718, 1 Sm. Laws 104, the General Assembly undertook to regulate the rates of inns. By the Act of March 11, 1834, P. L. 117, a comprehensive scheme of regulation for hotels and inns was established, providing, inter alia, for the assessment of innkeepers. (Section 6.) This assessment provision was not repealed until the passage of the Act of May 22, 1933, P. L. 853, Section 601, subsection (7). The Act of June 12, 1913, P. L. 481, defines the liability of the keepers of inns and hotels to their guests. The Liquor Control Act of 1933, supra, Section 2, expressly *175 distinguishes between hotels and restaurants for the purpose of licensing the sale of liquor.
Prior to the passage of the Act of 1907, here involved, the courts of this state had occasion to pass on matters of taxation affecting hotels and restaurants. In Com. v. BrewingCo.,
Did the legislature intend in this Act of 1907 to ignore the historical distinction between hotels and restaurants? In our approach to the question, we must bear in mind the requirement of the Statutory Construction Act of May 28, 1937, P. L. 1019, Section 58, that a strict construction be placed upon taxing statutes.
The language of the Act here in question gives no indication of an intent to include hotels in the subjects of taxation. Obviously the hotel business cannot be classified as a "restaurant, eating-house, cafe, or quick-lunch business," even though a dining room may be maintained by the hotel as an incident of its service to guests. The legislature must have considered the effect of the decisions in the Brewing Company Case, and in the McClure case, and have understood that, under the *176 ordinary interpretation of the language used, the Act would be construed to have no reference to hotels and inns. Had the legislature intended to impose upon them this additional tax, it would have expressly said so.
In Union League v. Ransley,
Although this problem has not been passed upon by this Court, it was decided in Smith's Appeal, 16 Leh. L. J. 379, that a hotel proprietor is not taxable under the Act of 1907 upon facts virtually identical with those here presented. We are of opinion that the construction placed by the court below upon the provisions of this Act is the correct one as applied to hotels, and for the reasons stated, we sustain the conclusion which it reached declaring the assessments against the hotel company to be null and void.
Decree affirmed. Costs to be paid by appellant.
"From and after the passage of this act, each and every individual, firm, copartnership, or corporation engaged in carrying on a restaurant, eating-house, cafe, or quick-lunch business shall pay an annual mercantile license tax of two dollars, and shall pay one mill additional on each dollar of the whole volume, gross, of the business transacted annually."
In Satterthwaite v. Gibbs,