City of Sacramento v. National Gold Bank of D. O. Mills & Co.

Headnote

Pleading.—In an action by a city to recover from a banking corporation a license alleged to be due for carrying on business, an averment in the complaint, that by virtue of an ordinance the defendant was liable to pay a license tax, is not an averment of the existence of an ordinance requiring the defendant to take out a license.

The defendant was a banking corporation organized under the laws of the United States. The action was brought to recover a license tax of one hundred dollars per quarter, which it was alleged the defendant had failed to pay for five quarters. The complaint contained the following averment:

“Plaintiff further shows that for the purpose of transacting, pursuing, and carrying on said business, as aforesaid, under and by virtue of the provisions of a certain ordinance passed by the board of trustees of said city of Sacramento on the twenty-seventh day of June, a.d. 1872, and duly published according to law, entitled 1 Ordinance Number Seventeen, an ordinance consolidating, revising, and .codifying the ordinances of the city of Sacramento, ’ the said defendant was and is required to take out a city license quarterly, in advance, and pay therefor to the city of Sacramento, aforesaid, the sum of one hundred dollars, in United States gold coin, for each and every quarter during which it transacted said business, as aforesaid, to wit: for the period of five quarters.”

The plaintiff had judgment, and the defendant appealed.