Bell v. Kerr

Citations

• 80 Miss. 177

Syllabus

<p>1. Statutes. ConsUtutionaMtiy of same. When not determined.</p> <p>The constitutionality of a statute will not be determined unless it be essent'al to the decision of the case under consideration.</p> <p>2. Privilege Taxes. Contracts. Timber buyer. Laws 1900, p. 44.</p> <p>The act of 1900, imposing a privilege tax, graduated according to acreage, on each “ land timber-mill company, or corporation, or individual ” in each county who buys timber therein without buying the land, subject to a proviso that the same should not apply to saw-mill operators w.ho do not ship timber or lumber out of this state (Laws, p. 44), is limited in its scope to the operators of saw-mills, and does not include one who, having bought standing timber in a county, contracts with a saw-mill operator to saw the same and deliver the lumber at a point indicated.</p> <p>3. Same. Commencement of business. Prior contract.</p> <p>A contract made before the commencement of a business cannot be void for delinquency under the privilege tax law as one made in the course of the business.</p>