McSparran, 041333 PAAGO, AGO 79

Case DateApril 13, 1933
CourtPennsylvania
Honorable John A. McSparran,
AGO 79
OPINION NO. 79
Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions
Opinion of the Attorney General
April 13, 1933
         Farm Products—Municipalities—Ordinances—Licenses. Acts of April 18, 1878, P. L, 26, Seo. 5; May 2, 1899, P. L. 184; April 22, 1903, P. L. 258; May 4, 1927, P. L. 519; May 8, 1929, P. L. 1686; June, 23, 1931, P, L. 932; June 24, 1931, P. L. 1206.          Farmers who sell their own products may make such sales in municipalities within the Commonwealth without payment of license fee. There may be regulation in the manner of delivery, which ordinances would require observance.          Honorable John A. McSparran, Secretary of Agriculture, Harrisburg,          Pennsylvania.          Sir: You have informed this department that numerous complaints have been made by farmers throughout the Commonwealth that they are being deprived of the right to sell their products in many of the cities and boroughs, because of ordinances which have been passed by such municipalities precluding them from making sales therein. You inquire whether farmers who sell their own products are required to procure a license in order to make such sales.          You have not furnished us with copies of the ordinances against which complaints have been made, or where illegally enforced, to the prejudice of the privileges accorded tinder the law to the farmer who sells the products which have been raised on his farm.          Sales by the farmer are often confused with those by hawkers, peddlers, and traveling merchants, who peddle, from house to house, goods, wares and merchandise. The ordinances against this class of salesmen, who are required to procure licenses, run into the hundred throughout the Commonwealth. These regulations are sometimes improperly used to deter the unwary farmer from exercising his right to sell the products which were raised by his own toil upon his own soil.          An ordinance made by a municipal corporation under authority of the State to levy and collect taxes upon hawkers and peddlers has been held to be a valid exercise of the police power: J. W. Brennan\ v. City of Titusville, 153 U. S. 289, 38 L. Ed. 719 (1894).          But a different condition is presented where a mercantile license tax on vendors of or dealers in goods, wares and merchandise is required. This is regulated by the Act of May 2, 1899, P. L. 184, which relates to raising revenue by imposing a mercantile license tax on such...

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