The age-herald., 1900-05-30
REVENUE LAW IS
 UNCONSTITUTIONAL Act of Last Legislature Declared
 Void. IS BIG LOSS TO THE STATE Retail Liquor Dealers and Commercial Travellers Brought the Question Before the Supreme Court
 Omission in Journal.
IS BIG LOSS TO THE STATE

l Age-Herald Bureau, Hotel Mabson, Mont gomery, May 29.-(Special.) .)-The supreme | court today declared unconstitutional the revenue law passed by the last general assembly. The point on which the court 1 reversed the decision of the lower court was that the printed and bound copy of the house journal and not the original copy | was the real journal.
 The points in the case are still fresh in the memory of the people. After the pass age of the act to amend the revenue laws, approved February 23, 1899, the retail liquor dealers of the state, together with many of the commercial travellers, employed coun- sel to examine the act and journal with the view of contesting certain license taxes imposed by the amended act, which were claimed to be unconstitutional, not only because they violated the constitution of the United States, but because the act itself was never consttutonally passed. The counsel found on inspection of the bound journals of the house in the secre- tary of states office that it did not appear that the house had adopted the conference report on the disagreement of the two houses as to amendments to the bill by an aye and nay vote as required. This exam ination of the journals of the house was made several weeks after the adjournment of the house sine die.
 Entered on the Margin
 Shortly after this it was discovered that somebody had entered on the margin of the journal recital showing that the house had concurred in this conference report by an aye and nay vote, as required by the constitution. Thereupon, petitioners applied for a mandamus against the secretary of state and clerk of the house to compel them to expugne from the house journal the matter which had ben Surreptitiously placed thereon.
 The lower court-the Montgomery city court-dened this aplication and its rul- ing wpas affirmed on appeal in the supreme court, which held that that was not the proper remedy, if the interpolation had been improperly made Thereupon, the parties doing business under the name of the Montgomery Bottling Works paid the license required by the act under protest and notified Probate Judge Cation of the county not to pay the money over, as it was the intention of the company to sue him for it, and suit was instituted.
 Subsequently in the lower court Judge Sayre held that the tax required by the 14th subdivision of section 15 of the act of $100 by brewers and taxing the agency of a brewery etc., was in violation of the con- stitution of the United States but that the other licenses which the botting works had paid for retailing was valid.
 Based on Clerks Memoranda
 The last ruling by Judge Sayre was based on the evidence of what the clerk called the journal which was made up of the clerks memorandas original papers, etc, which had been sent to the public printer in Florida The plaintiffs in the suit claimed that bound journals deposited with the secretary of state was the journal and the other papers nothing but a copy, etc.
 The supreme court, in it's decision today, held that the journal deposited in the office of the secretary of state was the journal, and that the alteration or amendment writ ten on the margin after the legislature had adjourned, and the journal had been de- posted with the secretary of state, at- tested by the signature of the speaker and clerk were put there without any authori- ty of law, and were no part of the journal. The journal not showing that the house had concurred by an aye and nay vote in the conference report as to the disagree ment between the two houses to amend ments to the bill, held the whole act void
 The result of this decision is that the old revenue law stands in force. Many thousands of dollars have been paid into the treasury under the penalties of this law, but if the tax payer didn't promptly sue to recover his taxes back after paying them under protest, he is now without remedy to recover from the state, except to apply to the general assembly to refund the tax. The decision by the su- preme court affects every item contained in what is known as the revenue law' adopted by the last legislature, embracing practically all license taxes. In some cases the taxes imposed by the old law were decreased, but in most cases they were increased, and many petit businesses were brought under the provisions of the law.
 The dancion passed by the last general assembly, such as the school and soldiers tax bills. The lawyers employed in the case were Messrs. Lomax, Crum and Weil Thomas c. and Charles J. Jones of Montgomery, Hanna and Pillans and Torrey of Mobile for the successful parties and Messrs. Gunter and Gunter of Montgomery, and Tax Commissioner w. J. Wood for the state