Sanning v. City of Cincinnati
Sanning v. City of Cincinnati
Opinion of the Court
Paragraph 30 of Section 1536-100, Revised Statutes of Ohio, provides as follows: “All municipal corporations shall have the power to regulate and license * * * chattel mortgage and salary loan brokers. * * * In the granting of any license a municipal corporation may exact and receive such sums of money as the council shall deem proper and expedient.
“In the trial of any action brought under the power of licensing herein given, the fact that any party to such action represented himself or herself as engaged in any business or occupation, for the transaction of which a license may be required or as the keeper, proprietor or manager of the thing for which a license may be exacted, or that such party exhibit a sign indicating such business or calling, or such proprietorship or management, shall be conclusive evidence of the liability of such party to pay the license therefor.”
“(No. 1671. Passed December 3, 1906.)
“To Regulate and License Chattel Mortgage and Salary Loan Brokers.
“Be it ordained by the Council of the City of Cincinnati, State of Ohio.
“Sec. 1. No person, firm or corporation shall within the city of Cincinnati, engage in the business of a chattel mortgage loan or salary loan broker, or engage in the business of loaning money secured by mortgage, bills of sale or other contracts involving' as security the forfeiture of rights in personal property, or upon assignments, bills of sale or other conveyance of salary or wages, without first having obtained a license from the auditor of said city so to do.
“Sec. 2. The auditor of said city shall issue to any person, firm or corporation a license as provided for in Section 1 for the period of one year, upon payment to the city of Cincinnati of the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars ($250.00) upon condition that the books and accounts of such licensee shall be open at any time to inspection by said auditor; provided, however, that said license shall expire on the 31st of December of the year in which issued, but said auditor may issue a license to any such person, firm or corporation who engages in business after the first of January for a period less than a year, upon payment of a proportionate amount of said sum.
“Sec. 3. Every such person, firm or corporation so licensed shall give to each pledgor, mortgagor or assignor, a card upon which shall be written in ink, typewritten or printed the name of the person, firm or corporation making said loan, the name of the pledgor, mortgagor or assignor, the article or articles pledged, mortgaged or assigned, unless there be more than fifteen of said articles, in which case a general description thereof shall be sufficient ; the amount of the loan, the amount of interest charged, the amount of expense charged exclusive of interest and the time for which each of said charges are made; the date when the loan is made and the date when payable, and shall also give the pledgor, mortgagor or assignor, a receipt for each payment of principal, interest or any other charge made on said loan and shall also give the pledgor, mortgagor or assignor, and if any payment shall consist of principal and interest, or any other charge, said receipt shall specify the amount of each.
“Sec. 4. No such person, firm or corporation so licensed shall receive as security for any indebtedness any chattel mortgage, bill of sale or assignment, or any other conveyance of any personal property, salary, or wages, signed in blank, but all blank spaces shall be filled in with ink, or typewritten, with the proper words and figures; and if said conveyance shall be for salary or wages, the name of the person, firm or corporation
“Sec. 5. Every such person, firm or corporation shall, on or before ten o’clock a. m. on each and every Wednesday, file with the auditor of the city of Cincinnati a true record of each and every loan made during the calendar week immediately preceding. Said record shall be made upon cards or blanks furnished by said auditor, and shall consist of the name of the person, firm or corporation making the loan, the name of the pledgor, mortgagor, or assignor, a specific description of the article or articles pledged, mortgaged or assigned, the amount loaned, the rate of interest, the amount charged for interest and the time for which said interest charge is made, the amount of expense charges, exclusive of interest, and the time for which said expense charge is made, and the date when said loan is payable. Such record so filed with the auditor of the city shall remain in the office of said auditor as a permanent record, open to the inspection of the mayor or the chief of police of said city.
“Sec. 6. No such person, firm or corporation shall make a loan to a married man upon the security set forth in Section 1 unless the application for said loan and the conveyance of the chattels or salary shall be signed by the wife of said applicant.
“Sec. 7. Any person or persons, either as principal agent, officer or employe of any other person, or any firm or corporation who violates any of the provisions of this ordinance, or any person or persons, firm or corporation who shall carry on the
The principal question is, whether the business of a chattel mortgage broker, or salary loan broker, is one that may be subjected to license and regulation by the state in the exercise of police power, and, if so, whether the power to license and regulate the business may be delegated by the state to municipal corporations, and whether Section 5 of the ordinance prescribes reasonable regulations.
The term police power has been much employed in recent years, and many attempts have been made to define it, but it is said to be incapable of definition. The term is not used in the constitution. The police power is included in the legislative power, but there are in the constitution express limitations upon some of the powers comprised in the legislative power, and the term police power is used to designate that power from others and is helpful in ascertaining its scope and the limitations upon it.
Chief Justice Shaw said, in Commonzvealth v. Alger, 7 Cush., 53, “Rights of property, like all other social and conventional rights, are subject to such reasonable limitations in their enjoyment as shall prevent them from being injurious, and to such reasonable restraints and regulations established by law as the legislature, under the governing and controlling power vested in them by the constitution, may think necessary and expedient.”
In Chicago, B. & Q. Ry. Co. v. Drainage Commissioners, 200 U. S., 561-592, Mr. Justice Harlan says: “We hold that the police power of the state embraces regulations designed to promote the public convenience or the general prosperity, as well as regulations designed to promote the public health,
The right to labor, to contract, to do business or to engage in any of the common occupations of life is one of the inalienable rights of the citizen, (Butchers Union Slaughter-House and Live-Stock Landing Company v. Crescent City L.-S. L. & S.-H. Company, 111 U. S., 746, Mr. Justice Bradley, 762, M1* Justice Field, 756) and may be regulated, therefore, by the state only to promote the public welfare, and this brings us to the question, what possible public good can be subserved by regulating brokers in chattel mortgages and in salary loans, and if the business is subject to regulation under the police power, are the provisions of the ordinance unreasonable?
Usury laws are of ancient origin, and while the utility of such legislation is still open to question, such laws are in force in this state, and in a majority of the states, and we think it too late to question the power of the state to enact them. One of the ways in. which such laws are circumvented "is by a commission to a broker. The class that obtain such loans comprises the most needy and improvident, and consequently the most susceptible to fraud and extortion, and surelv legislation to prevent such evasions, or fraud and extortion, may rest upon the same grounds as usury laws. And it would not be profitable to consume space by setting forth
The legislature may delegate to municipal corporations the right to exercise the police power to effect the purposes of its organization, but the extent of the grant and the reasonableness of its exercise are questions for the courts.
In Stoutenburgh v. Hennick, 129 U. S., 141, 147, Chief Justice Fuller says: “It is a cardinal principle of our system of government,' that local affairs shall be managed by local authorities, and general affairs by the central authority; and hence while the rule is also' fundamental that the power to make laws cannot be delegated, the creation of municipalities exercising local self government has never been held to trench upon that rule. Such legislation is not regarded as a transfer of general legislative power, but rather as the grant of the authority to prescribe local regulations, according to immemorial practice, subject of course to the interposition of the superior in cases of necessity.” In the present case the grant is in general terms, so that the question arises as to the reasonableness of the regulations prescribed by Section 5 of the ordinance. The authority given is to regulate and license chattel mortgage and salary loan brokers. The ordinance is so entitled, but its provisions are more comprehensive and embrace persons engaged in the business of loaning money upon chattel mortgages, or other personal property as security, and most of the regulations prescribed relate to such trans
The only provision of the constitution that occurs to us upon which is based the contention that the ordinance invades the right of property, is Section 14 of the Bill of Rights, which provides: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated; .and no warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person and things to be seized.” The search or seizure there referred to, is' a search or seizure under authority of law. The ordinance
Objection was made to a similar requirement respecting pawnbrokers, in St. Joseph v. Levin, 128 Mo., 588, and it was held that the ordinance did not violate a similar requirement of the constitution of that state, or the fifth amendment to the Constitution of the United States. And in Launder v. Chicago, 111 Ill., 291, a similar requirement respecting pawnbrokers was held not unreasonable.
Having found the power to exist in the state, its delegation to the municipality, and the objectionable regulation, prescribed by the ordinance, not unreasonable, the judgment is
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.