Joseph P. Bradley

“ The defendants Joseph A. Aiken & Co., at the time of filing the bill, were lessees of the public wharves belonging to the city of New Orleans, under a lease from the city made in May, 1881, for the term of five years; and, as such lessees, charged and collected the wharfage complained of. The object of the bill, as shown by its prayer, was to obtain an injunction to prevent the defendants from exacting the excessive charges referred to, the complainants expressing a willingness to pay all reasonable wharfage. ”

“ The fact that if any surplus remains from the tolls over what is used to keep the locks in repair, and for their collection, it is to be paid into the state treasury as a part of the revenue of the state, does not change the character of the toll or impost. In prescribing the rates it would be impossible to state in advance what the tollswould amount to in the aggregate. ”

“ To keep the wharves and levees in good repair; to construct such new wharves as might be necessary, not exceeding the expenditure, in any one year, of $25,000; to light the wharves with electric lights; and to pay he city annually the sum of $40,000, of which $30,000 should be devoted to the maintenance of a harbor police for the protection of commerce, and the remaining $10,000 should be devoted exclusively to the payment of salaries of wharfingers, signal officers, and other employes on the levees. ”

“ The bill alleges that on the seventeenth of January, 1875, the council of the city of New Orleans adopted an ordinance 'fixing and regulating charges for wharfage, levee, and other facilities afforded by the city of New Orleans to commerce,' by which ordinance, among other matters and things, it was ordained that the wharfage dues on all steam-boats shall be fixed as follows: 'NOT OVER FIVE DAYS, TEN CENTS PER TON, and each day thereafter, five dollars per day; boats arriving and departing more than once a week, five cents per ton each trip ”

“ Ct. Rep. 313, it was said: 'By the terms 'tax,' 'impost,' 'duty,' mentioned in the ordinance, [the ordinance of 1787,] is meant a charge for the use of the government, not compensation for improvements. ”