City of San Bernardino v. S. Pac. Co.

This is an action by the city of San Bernardino, a municipal corporation of the fifth class, to recover of the Southern Pacific Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Kentucky, the sum of one hundred dollars as license tax. for carrying on the business of common carrier, under the provisions of a city ordinance imposing a license tax of five dollars a month on any person or company carrying on such business in said city. The answer alleges that the defendant is engaged in interstate commerce in operating a railroad for the carriage of freight and passengers and United States mail from New Orleans, in the state *527 of Louisiana, through the state of California, to Portland, in Oregon, and as part of said system operates a line of railroad to said city of San Bernardino, and that the sum sought to be recovered from defendant is a license tax for the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce, and its assessment and attempted enforcement and collection is a violation of article I, section 8, parts III and VII of the constitution of the United States. The case was tried on an agreed statement of facts, and judgment went for defendant in the court below, and…