statute permitting honorably discharged veterans to peddle and sell goods after obtaining free license, where others were required to pay license fees, violated article I, section 12
How later courts described this case
- statute permitting honorably discharged veterans to peddle and sell goods after obtaining free license, where others were required to pay license fees, violated article I, section 12
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Schwellenbach, J.
(concurring in the result) — I do not believe that a constitutional question is involved in this *491 case. A peddler’s license was issued to the respondent by the city of Seattle under its powers to regulate such enterprise. Under the provisions of Rem. Rev. Stat., § 10756, no charge was made by the city for the license. Undoubtedly, this license permitted the respondent to peddle any place within the city limits of Seattle. But what right has he to. peddle in Shelton under a Seattle license? It is not necessary for us to decide in this case whether or not the legislature could legally authorize such a procedure. Our sole problem is to determine whether the legislature did so authorize in amending Rem. Rev. Stat., §§ 10755, 10756.
The purpose of enacting chapter 144, Laws of 1945, is clearly set out in the title thereto: “An Act relating to certain veterans; providing for the relief of the same; prescribing the duties of certain officers; providing for certain licenses and amending . . . sections 1 and 2, chapter 69, Laws of 1903 (sections 10755 and 10756, Remington’s Revised Statutes), . . .” As amended, Rem. Rev. Stat., § 10755, states that every honorably discharged veteran who is a resident of this state, shall have a right to peddle without paying for the license as now provided by law. Rem. Rev. Stat., § 10756 states that upon presentation to the county auditor or city clerk of the county in which the veteran may reside, of a certificate of honorable discharge, he shall be issued, without charge, a license to peddle.
All the legislature intended to accomplish by this amendment was to insure to such veteran the issuance of a peddler’s license without requiring him to pay the usual license fee normally required. Had the legislature intended to take away from cities and towns their right to regulate peddlers by ordinance, or had it intended to permit an honorably discharged veteran to peddle in any county of the state under a license issued to him by the county or city of his residence, it would have indicated this intention in the title of the amending act, and would, and should, have so stated in the body of the act. No apparent attempt was made by the legislature to amend chapter 110, p. 213, Laws of 1929 (Rem. Rev. Stat., § 8353 [P.P.C. § 728-49]), which states “That *492 nothing in this act shall apply to peddlers within the limits of any city or town which by city ordinance regulates the' sale of goods, wares or merchandise by peddlers: . .
I find nothing in the act authorizing respondent to peddle in Shelton under the license issued to him by the city of Seattle. Neither do I find any language in the act warranting us to find an intention on the part of the legislature to permit this to be done.
Donworth, J., concurs with Schwellenbach, J.