The age-herald., 1897-10-08
10 BE SETTLED SATURDAY
City'S Case Against Tennessee
 Packing Company.
COALDALE BRICK COMPANY
They Will Contest the Case on the Ground That the Receiver Is an Officer
 of the Court

The action of City Tax Collector Cam Ibill, in his efforts to collect license taxes, which have been resisted in several In- stances lately, resulting in the arrest eff several parties, has brought out some interesting points of law.
 Demands for license have been made agafnEt parties who operate plarts out side of ,she city. but who sell their prod pany and the coaedale Tile and Brick company have been brought into court on charge of dofng business without license Tax Collector Gambill claims cense tax assessed against their respec- tive avocations, inasmuch as they sell their products in the city.
 MT. Ault, the manager of the Tennes- see Packing company, said to an Age Herald reponter yesterday:
 We refused ito pay $50 license 1arst year, and were informed in the collectors office Ghat we were liable for drummers' license at amy rate. We fourd this to be correct, ard that the amount of such H. cense to be s25 which we paid under protest rather than to stand a law suit for that amount. I was uniformed at the collectors office that the Armour Pack ing company paid a license tax of $50. and B. F. Roden & Co.,, $75 I proposed ito pay $50 rather than contest the claim, and was told by Mir. Gambfa that if we would make proposition ito pay $100 it would be entertained.
 'If we are xaIble for license, every fur mace, saw mill brickyard, cotton mill, rolling min oil miM or other manufac- turing concern outside of the city Nm- its, but delivering its products within, is Hable for license tax levied on like concerns in tlha c1.y. Mr. Gaanbil1 tln- formed me that if we had house in the ely, such as Armour or Roden's, we would be liable for two licenses, one for the city house and one for the house out side of the city,
 We enjoy none of the benefits to be derived from the city government It is about one mile to the nearest pollcemans s beat. We have no fire protection, no sewer within a ntle. Glo graded streets, and no sidewalks. We graded the road on Avenue H leading to our plant at our own expense. If we are liable for license tax in Birmingham, we are also liable in every surrounding town, which would tax us out of busthess. The very nature of-our business oblfgeis us to locate in an isolated spot away from the 'thickly set-' tied districts, and 1t was not with any intention to dodge taxes that our present site wes selected but rather to comply with sanitary regulations.
 Manager John Sibdey of the Rosedale Brick and Tile company could not be seen yesterday, but MT. J. B. Cobbs, president of the Berney National bank, who is receiver for the company, and on whom the notice has been served, said to am Age Herald reporter that inasmuch as he was receiver for the company and as such am officer of the court, that he did not know whether he was liable for the Ecense. The question that presented itself was, that df the license was not paid, could the court be sued to recover same? MT. Cobbs Eaid that he desired it understood that he was not resisting the payment of any license due the city, but that he favored the enforcement of H. cense for all buruneGs concerns in the city that were liable, and only in his position as an officer of the court, and as to the bsgalhsty of his ion as such did he take his stand. Capt. Fred Ferguson, who formerly attorney for the Coledale B1fck and Tile company, said that demands had been made upon the compalny in pre- vious years for licen,se and that he ad- vised the non-pa ymenIp of same on the grounds that they were not liable. He funther said that in several instances he had been required to go before the mayor and city attorney ard that each time he had settled the maIdter by con- vincing them that the company was not liable. You could as we'll say that a merchant in New York selling goods in itlfis city and delivering itlBelm was liable for license ito the city," said he.
 The municipal tax on drummeT.s which was i'm vogue all over the country sev- eral years ago and which created much dissatisfaction among the commercial travellers, was made the subject of a test case and carried to the supreme court of the United Sta.es, where it was declared unconstitutional, the question of law in- yolved being tlle right of a municipality to levy license tax against the agent of a firm whose place of business was outside of the city and selling goods in it's limits for future delivery.
 Judge Feagin is expected to render Ia decision in the case of ,,he city vs. Ten-