Levinson v. Cox

Citations

• 127 Miss. 250
• 90 So. 1

Syllabus

<p>1. LICENSE. Statute held to have continued to make broker’s failure to pay license a misdemeanor, but not to have continued provision making his contracts void.</p> <p>Section 3401, Code of 1892, as amended by section 3894, Code of 1906, left out the provision theretofore in the privilege tax statute, declaring all contracts void and unenforceable, made with any person failing to pay the privilege tax required by law for carrying on the business out of which such contracts arose; but said statute as amended preserved the provision theretofore in the statute, making such failure to pay the required tax a misdemeanor, and punishable as such; and the statute has so continued in that respect through its various re-enactments down to the present time (chapter 114, Laws 1914, Hemingway’s Code, section 6631section 71, chapter 104, Laws of 1920).</p> <p>2. Brokers. May recover commissions though committing misdemeanor by failing to pay license tax.</p> <p>Under said statute as amended, a real estate agent' may sue for and recover his commissions earned in carrying on his business as such agent, notwithstanding his failure to' pay the privilege tax required of such an agent by law, which is made a misdemeanor by the statute; because the criminal penalty provided by the statute is not imposed to outlaw the contract, but for the purpose of protecting the 'public revenue.</p>