The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-12-24
MOTOR VEHICLE LAW is DE-
CLARED VALID.
Supreme Court Holds Registration
Law is Regulation Not a Tax.

|
The supreme court upheld the con-
stitutionality of the Iowa motor We
hicle registration law in an opinion
handed down last Saturday in the
case of the State VS.. B. H. Gish. JUS
tice Deemer dissented.
The court asserted that the state
has no more right to prohibit the use
of motor trucks than it has to pro-
hibit the use of lumber wagons, but
that it has the power to pass regu-
latory law. The motor vehicle regis
tration law is manifestly a regula-
ton, the court finds.
Gish was arrested for operating his
automobile without displaying the
proper registration number. How
ever, he had paid the registration fee
to the secretary of state several
weeks before his arrest occurred.
The state was having difficulty in
getting plates from the manufacturer
in 1913 and was unable to keep up
with the orders for plates. Gish
therefore had to operate under his
1912 number for several months in
1913.
The district court refused to per-
nit Gish to show that he had paid his
fee and that he had complied with
the law to his utmost and that the
failure to display plates was due to
the state department. The supreme
court says the lower court should
have permitted this evidence to have
been introduced and that the court
never should have found Gish to be
guilty of violation Of the law
VIC
things which are impossible, the
courts opinion says. The facts show
that Gish attempted to comply with
the law and that it was not his fault
that he did not have the proper
plates. He was citizen of Blairs-
burg and was arrested May 20, 1913,
while attending funeral in Iowa
Falls, Hardin county.
This broad construction placed on
the section of the law requiring
plates to be displayed on motor We
hicles saves the spirit of the law and
perhaps it's validity, the court says.
Continuing, the opinion explains
that if there is any evasion of the
letter of the law, it is because the
letter killeth as it is sometimes wont
to do
AS to section of the law requir-
ing registration fees to be paid to the
state, the court says that although
this section was attacked in the Gish
case, it would avail Gish nothing to
have this section declared void. And
it would be possible to destroy this
section and not affect the remainder
of the law The court says that "a
reasonable fee may be imposed as an
incident to the exercise of police pow
er of regulation is too we'll settled to
require citation of authorities"
1--WE shall not be swift to find any
obstacle to the dilligent enforcement
of the statute under consideration,
the ruling continues Every person
who is liable for the registration fees
should be required to pay the same
to the state or should be punished
for violation of the statute
This ruling is of great Importance
to the state of Iowa. The attorneys
for Gish had attacked the entire law,
expecting to have it declared uncon-
s,ltutional. They claimed that the
registration fee was not license but
was tax and as such is unconstitu-
tiOnal. The state will soon require
100000 automobiles to be registered,
and fatal blow ut the law would
have seriously upset the states plans.