Roe v. Salt Lake City
Roe v. Salt Lake City
Opinion of the Court
Appeal from a summary judgment in a case brought under the declaratory judgment act,
The authorities cited by the City factually are different. Significantly either in the law of the cases mentioned or in their dicta, they more or less agree with the position taken by this court. The ordinance here attempted to pour unconstitutional salt in the plaintiffs’ wounds, but in doing so has salined its own parchment.
The ordinance here starts out by taxing all businesses. This is the class, the members of which constitutionally must be treated uniformly and equally. The second paragraph negates this premise. It is conceded that the few professions named in the ordinance were swimming in the general
. Title 78-33-1 et seg., Utah Code Annotated 1953.
. Sec. 20-3-2 (a), as amended, Revised Ordinances of Salt Lake City:
“License tax levied, (a) There is hereby levied upon the business of every person engaged in business in Salt Lake City * * * an annual license fee of $30.00 per place of business, plus an additional fee of $3.00 for each and*267 every employee, exceeding one, engaged in the operation of said business.
* * *
“Each person engaged in the business of practicing the following professions in Salt Lake City, to-wit:
a. Accountant j. Income tax service
b. Appraiser k. Optometrist
e.Architect l. Osteopathic physician
d. Attorney-at-law m. Physician and surgeon
e. Attorney patent n. Doctor of medicine
f. Chiropodist o. Surveyor
g. Chiropractor p. Psychotherapist
h. Dentist q. Psychologist
i. Civil, structural, mining or con-r. Physical therapist
sultant engineer .s. Naturopathic physician
t. Radiologist
shall he deemed to he engaged in a separate business * * * subject to the payment of the license fee as levied hereinabove * * * whether such person engages or carries on such profession as a copartner, a stockholder in a professional or other corporation, or as an associate in an association of persons.”
. 117 Utah 315, 215 P.2d 616, 223 P.2d 412,16 A.L.R.2d 1208 (1950).
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bryce E. ROE, Ralph L. Jerman and B. L. Dart, Jr., doing business as Roe, Jerman & Dart, a partnership, and Roe, Jerman & Dart, a business partnership, and v. SALT LAKE CITY, a municipal corporation, and
- Status
- Published