Merced County v. Helm & Nolan

Citations

• 102 Cal. 159
• 36 P. 399
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 610

Syllabus

<p>License Tax—Sale of Liquors—Action—Police Power—Revenue Measure.—Where a county has passed an ordinance requiring a high license tax for the sale of intoxicating liquors within the county, and providing that the tax shall he collected by suit, hut fixing no penalty for engaging in the business, the ordinance is not to be regarded as the exercise of a police power, but as a revenue measure in the regulation of the business.</p> <p>Id.—Nature of Police Power—Penalty.—Police power is exercised in the enforcement of a penalty prescribed for a noncompliance with the l.aw, or for the doing of some prohibited act.</p> <p>Id.—Power of License for Revenue and Regulation—Prohibition.— Under the provisions of the County Government Act giving power to license for the purposes of regulation and revenue all and every kind of business not prohibited by law, prohibition .cannot he effected, and the very terms of the power preclude the exercise to such an extent as to prevent the carrying on of the business.</p> <p>Id.—Power to License Business—Individual Acts—Business Not Sbeci-Fied.—The power to impose a license tax upon a business does not authorize a tax upon individual acts connected with such business; nor can a license tax for a business he demanded for any act of the business not specified in the ordinance providing for such taxes,</p> <p>Id,—Power of Taxation Statutory—Strict Construction.—The right to take the property of the individual for public purposes, by way of taxation, must find an express statutory warrant, and all laws having this object are to he construed strictly in favor of the individual and against the state.</p> <p>Id,'—Proceeding In Invitum.—In a proceeding in invitum to enforce a tax, whether by seizure or by suit, no presumption is to he indulged in favor of the right to take the property, or of any intention that is not distinctly expressed in the statute by virtue of which it is sought to he taken.</p> <p>III.—Tax Not Extended by Construction.—A ta