Martin Ship Service Co. v. City of Los Angeles

Section 21.190 of the Municipal Code of the City of Los Angeles provides that “Every person engaged in any trade, calling, occupation, vocation, profession or other means of livelihood, as an independent contractor and not as an employee of another, and not specifically licensed by other provisions of this Article, shall pay a license fee in the sum of $12.00 per calendar year or fractional part thereof for the first $12,000 or less of gross receipts, and in addition thereto, the sum of $1.00 per year for each $1,000 or fractional part thereof, of gross receipts in excess of $12,000.” Payment of the license tax is a condition precedent to engaging in the enumerated occupations. * It is therefore exacted for the privilege of carrying on an occupation, and is measured by *795 the gross receipts derived therefrom. (Union Pac. R. R. Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 53 Cal.App.2d 825, 830 [ 128 P.2d 408 ].)

Plaintiffs are independent contractors engaged exclusively in furnishing maintenance and repair services to ships employed only in interstate and foreign commerce while those ships are tied to docks or anchored in the harbors of Los Angeles, Newport-Balboa, Long Beach, San Diego, and…