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75 U.S. 587

United States v. Smith

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided December 1, 1869

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1869-12

On certificate of division between the judges of the Northern District of Ohio; the case being this: The act of June 30th, 1864, “ to provide internal revenue to support the government, to pay interest on the public debt, and for- other purposes,” enacts, by its 71st section,* that n6 person shall carry on the business of a coal oil distiller until he have obtained a license in the manner prescribed.

1 counsel of record

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Certification to/from lower court · 8–0 · Opinion by Robert Cooper Grier · Decided 1869-12

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 1950

2 state decisions

201869187018801890190019101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1Under the net of. June 30th, 1804, to provide internal revenue to support tlio government, &c., which requires a license to persons exercising certain occupations, and fixes the limit to its duration, the parties to the bond given on the granting of the.license, are not bound to answer for any breach of the condition of the bond after the expiration of the license.

¶2On certificate of division between the judges of the Northern District of Ohio; the case being this:

¶3*588The act of June 30th, 1864, “ to provide internal revenue to support the government, to pay interest on the public debt, and for- other purposes,” enacts, by its 71st section,* that n6 person shall carry on the business of a coal oil distiller until he have obtained a license in the manner prescribed.

¶4The 73d section subjects all persons who violate the enactment to tine and imprisonment.

¶5“The 74th section enacts that all licenses granted after the 1st day of May in any year, shall continue in force until the Isi day of May in any year next succeeding.”

¶6The 53d section of the same act provides that any person required by law to be licensed as a distiller, before distilling any spirits, shall, in addition to what is required by other provisions of law, make an application for a license to the assessor of the district; and that before the same is issued the person applying shall give bond with surety conditioned that he will render to the assessor, on the certain days of each month, during the continuance of the license, an exact account of the number of gallons of spirits distilled, &c., and' that he will pay to the collector the dpties on them.

¶7And the 94th section provides that “ distillers of coal oil shall be subject to all the provisions of laws applicable to distillers of spirits with regard to licenses, bonds, &e., and all other provisions designed for the purpose of securing the payment of duties, so far as the same may, in the judgment of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and under regulations prescribed by him, be deemed necessary for that purpose.”

¶8The act of June 30th, 1864 — which is one of great length, and contains a hundred and eighty-two sections, some of them with numerous subdivisions and schedules — i’epeals a prior act of July 1st, 1862, with a title similar to its own.

¶9With this statute of 1864 in force, Smith got a license as a distiller of coal oil on the 27th May, 1865, and gave bond with surety conditioned that he, Smith, should conform to all the provisions of an act entitled “ An act to provide internal revenue,” &c., approved July 1st, 1862, and of such *589other act or acts as were then or might thereafter be in that behalf enacted.

¶10Upon suit brought by the United States against him and his surety in the court below, for breaches of the condition of the bond at various times during the months of June and July, 1866, the judges there were divided in opinion upon the question whether he or his surety were liable for any breach after the 1st of May, 1866; to wit, after the expiration of the license granted to them in May, 1865.

¶11Mr. Hoar, Attorney-General, and Mr. Field, Assistant Attorney-General, for the United States; Mr. Wills, contra.

¶13Mr. Justice GRIER

¶14delivered the opinion of the court.

¶15The act of July 1st, 1862, has been inserted in the bond ex majori cautela; for it is admitted that the act of June 30th, 1864, entitled “An act to provide internal revenue, to'support the government, to pay the interest on the public debt, and for other purposes,” is the only act applicable to this case." The act of 1862 was repealed by it.

¶16As might be expected in an act embracing the almost innumerable subjects of taxation contained in this one, and covering more than seventy pages of the statute-book, provisions may probably be found in one part of it difficult to be reconciled with some contained' in other parts. Yet, when carefully examined, we find no difficulty in answering the question proposed.

¶17The seventy-first section, of the act is the one which prescribes the conditions under which lieensés shall be given.

¶18The seventy-third section subjects all persons who neglect it, to fine and imprisonment.

¶19The seventy-fourth section fixes the limit to the license, beyond which time the parties to the bond are not bound to answer for any breach of the condition.

¶20The provisions of the fifty-third and ninety-fourth sections of the act, which subject distillei’s of coal oil to the provisions of the act applicable to the "distillers of spirits, “ so far as the same may, in the judgment of the Commissioner of ' *590Internal Revenue, be deemed necessary,” have no application to the point. The commissioner has exercised no judgement, and prescribed no regulations on the subject, so far as appears. The bond has no reference to such conditions as are required in distillery bonds, and cannot be affected'by them. “ ’Tis not so written in the bond.”

¶21Ordered that it be.certified to tho judges of the Circuit Court, in answer to the question submitted, that the defendants are

¶22Not liable.

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