State v. Schultz Gas Fixture & Art Metal Co.

Russum, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The General Assembly, at its January session, 1890, (ch. 536), passed an Act, entitled “An Act to add a new section to Article eighty-one of the Code of Public General Laws, title ‘ Revenue and Taxes,’ sub-title ‘Payment of Taxes by Corporations,’ providing for the payment by every newly incorporated company of a bonus on its capital stock, for the use of the State, to come in after section eighty-eight, and to be designated as section eighty-eight A.” In the body of the Act it is provided that “ every corporation incorporated since January 1, 1890,” except cemetery companies and companies formed for purely charitable and benovolent purposes, and railroad companies, shall pay to the State Treasurer, for the use of the State, a bonus of one-eighth of one per centum upon the amount of the capital stock which said company is authorized to have, in two equal instalments, and a like bonus upon any subsequent increase thereof; the first instalment to be due and payable upon, the incorporation of such company or on the increase of its capital, and the second instalment one year thereafter ; the exercise of any corporate powers being prohibited until the first installment of said bonus has been paid to the Treasurer of the State. The concluding portion of the Act is in these words : “ Whenever the capital stock of any of said companies, or any company of like character heretofore incorporated shall be increased, a bonus of one-sixth of one per centum upon the amount of said increase shall be paid to the State Treasurer in two equal installments, the first to ⁶⁰ be due and payable upon the recording of the certificate of such increase, or upon the passage of any special Act authorizing such increase, and the second installment shall be due and payable one year thereafter.” This Act took effect from its passage, and was approved April 8th, .1890. The State of Maryland brought suit against The Schultz Gas Fixture and Art Metal Company in the Court of Common Pleas of Baltimore City, to recover the bonus of one-sixth of one per centum upon the increase of its capital stock to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars, and the case was tried before the Judge at Large, upon an agreed statement of facts, and without the intervention of a jury.

By the admitted facts in the case, it appears that “ The Schultz Gas Fixture and Art Metal Company” was a corporation existing prior to January 1st, 1890, and that pursuant to its charter an increase of its capital stock was ordered to the amount of $200,000, and that the certificate of such increase was recorded on the 30th day of December, 1890, of which increase only $35,000 was actually issued ; that the defendant had' paid no part of the bonus on such increase, but had refused and still .refuses to pay said tax, and that, if it was liable for said tax, the .whole amount was due and payable. The plaintiff requested the Court, to rule, as. a matter of law from these facts, that it was entitled to recover one-sixth of one per centum on the amount of increase of defendant’s capital stock, set out in said recorded certificate, which the Court refused to do; to which refusal the plaintiff excepted and, .the verdict and judgment being entered for the- defendant, the plaintiff appealed to this Court. The principal question presented by this appeal is the constitutionality of so much of the Act of 1890, ch. 536; as imposes a tax of one-sixth of one per centum on the increase of the capital stock of corporations created and existing prior to January 1st, 189c. The 29th section of Article 3 of the Constitution of this State declares that “ every law enacted by the General Assembly shall embrace but one subject, and that shall be ⁶¹ described in its title.” This provision of the Constitution has frequently been considered by this Court, and the evils which it was intended to correct and the object designed to be attained fully discussed.

In Scharf, Commisr., &c., v. Tasker, 73 Md. 383 , the rule to be applied to the construction of statutes is thus laid down : “ The invariable rule has been that whilst the title need not contain an abstract of the bill, there must be no foreign, irrelevant or discordant matter introduced into the body of the statute. Such matter will be rejected, if other sections of the Act can stand without it, but if the Act