Court Opinion

ID: 9684509
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:59:21.620977+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:56.508437
License: Public Domain

POPE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Article 13.01, Tex.Tax.-Gen.Ann. (1959), of the coin-machine statute, defines the word “owner.” It states:
(1) The term “owner” means any person, individual, firm, company, association or corporation owning or having the care, control, management or possession of any “coin-operated machine” in this State.
Section 8(1) of Article 13.17, Tex.Tax.Gen.Ann. (1969), provides: “No person shall engage in business to . . . own . . . a music coin-operated machine or a skill or pleasure coin-operated machine without a license issued under this Article.” The same section then excepts corporations or associations organized exclusively for religious, charitable, educational, or benevolent purposes; those who own such a machine for personal use and amusement in their private residence; and any person subject to regulation by the Railroad Commission of Texas who transports or stores such machines not owned by him and in the due course of business.
Subsequent to the enactment of the original coin-machine statutes, the Legislature enacted a provision to exempt an owner who, on the effective date of the Act, owned a single machine which was owned for business purposes. The exemption was from the tax but not from the requirement that the owner be licensed. This exemption is found in Section 1(a) of Article 13.17 of the taxation statutes:
Sec. 1(a) Notwithstanding any language herein contained to the contrary, no provision herein shall be construed to require a fee for a general business license for an individual who, on the effective date of this Act only owns a single place of business and owns a music or skill or pleasure coin-operated machine in such place of business.
The quoted section reveals that the Legislature recognized the need for an exemption from taxation of the limited or incidental use of a single coin-operated machine. Neither that section nor any other section, however, affords an exemption to the owner of one machine from the licensing requirements. The Legislature recognized that one’s use of a coin machine may be slight or incidental, and it has said that this means the ownership of one place of business and a coin-operated machine. It then exempts such owner from the tax but not a license.
This legislation arose out of Legislative investigations of the control of businesses by persons engaged in some phases of the coin-machine business. The Legislature determined that this control over permit-tees in the liquor business should be broken by requiring the licensing of all owners of coin machines - and by prohibiting one’s possessing both a liquor license and a coin-machine license. The majority decision of the court has held that a coin-machine owner need not be* licensed if his coin-machine operation is merely incidental to his other business of retail sales of alcoholic beverages. This was not the intent of the Legislature. The Legislature rather carefully spelled out all exemptions from licensing but it did not draw the uncertain distinction between principal and incidental businesses.
The line which this court has drawn to exempt one from licensing is too vague to permit the law’s enforcement. Does an “incidental” coin-machine business arise when one owns twenty taverns in each of which is one coin machine? What about *101an owner who has three taverns and six machines? Will the “incidental” nature of coin-machine operation be determined by the comparative revenue derived from each? In the case of the very large and active tavern, the business from each line of endeavor may be great, but one or the other may be the greater. In the case of the small tavern with a single machine, when each shows a small profit, which one is incidental when the revenue from both is essential to the continuance of the business ? The rule announced by this court will require an audit of the books and records of every establishment, in which even one coin machine is located.
As a matter of statutory construction, I have problems in reading into the statute the court’s exception. I would, therefore, approve the construction of the statute and the holding of the court of civil appeals.