E. A. Hoffman Candy Co. v. City of Newport Beach

Appellant is a California corporation with its principal place of business in the city of Los Angeles. It was engaged in the business of manufacturing candy and confections and selling its products to retail stores in various cities and communities in southern California, conducting this business from its central plant in Los Angeles. Its salesmen solicited and- secured orders from retail merchants which were filled by delivering the merchandise to the purchasers in motor-trucks belonging to appellant and operated over the public highways and city streets.

Respondent City of Newport Beach is a city of the sixth class in Orange County, and respondent R. R. Hodgkinson is its city marshal.

On May 27, 1929, the city council of Newport Beach adopted its Ordinance Number 361, imposing a license tax upon various enterprises conducted within its boundaries. By section 78 of the ordinance a license of $12 per annum is placed upon stores or places of business where articles of personal property are loaned, rented, let, served or sold. Section 79 of the ordinance provides as follows: “Every person, firm or corporation not specifically mentioned in this ordinance, conducting, managing or…