City of Mobile v. Richards
Supreme Court of Alabama
Appeal from the City Court of Mobile. Tried before the Hon: O. J. Semmes. This was a suit by the city of Mobile to recover from defendants below the amount of the penalty imposed by the mayor for a failure to pay a special license tax laid by an ordinance of the city on all who engaged in the business of selling liquor by the wholesale within its limits.
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Appeal from the City Court of Mobile. Tried before the Hon: O. J. Semmes. This was a suit by the city of Mobile to recover from defendants below the amount of the penalty imposed by the mayor for a failure to pay a special license tax laid by an ordinance of the city on all who engaged in the business of selling liquor by the wholesale within its limits. Besides the general issue, two special pleas, amounting in substance to the same, were interposed by defendants, setting up certain facts on which they based their claim to immunity from said license tax. To these pleas, demurrers were filed,…
1Opinion of the CourtHead, J.
In view of the principle, that the power of a municipal corporation to tax must' be clearly and unequivocally conferred by the State, and that all doubts whether the power has been conferred, in a given instance, must be resolved against the municipality, we perceive the force of the argument that the act to create the Port of Mobile, approved Dec. 10, 1886, (Acts 1886-7, p. 24) which, while in general terms authorizing the general council to impose license taxes upon all businesses, trades and professions carried on in the city, yet further provides that 'the license tax so authorized shall…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- City of Mobile v. Craft & Co.Supreme Court of Alabama · 1891
3Cited by9 opinions
- Republic Iron & Steel Co. v. StateSupreme Court of Alabama · 1920
- Hackney v. PerrySupreme Court of Alabama · 1907
- Alabama Gas Co. v. City of MontgomerySupreme Court of Alabama · 1947
- Adams v. CurrySupreme Court of Alabama · 1942
- Gambill v. Endrich Bros.Supreme Court of Alabama · 1904
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