City & County of San Francisco v. Pac. Tel. & Tel. Co.

This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment entered in favor of defendant pursuant to an order sustaining its demurrer to the complaint.

The action was brought to recover a license fee or tax upon defendant’s business as a telephone company. In May, 1903, the board of supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco enacted an ordinance providing, in section 1, that “every person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of supplying telephone service to or for the inhabitants of this city and county shall pay a license as follows:

The question for decision is whether the respondent was exempted from liability for the license charge by the provisions of section 14 of article XIII of the constitution of this state. The section in question was proposed to the electors by legislative resolution adopted March 19, 1909 (Stats. 1909, p. 1332), and was ratified at the election of November 8, 1910. Its terms, so far as they are material to the present discussion, are as follows:

The appellant’s contention, briefly stated, is that the constitutional. provision relieves the companies named from no burden except that of taxes upon the property theretofore enumerated, and that the…