Bills v. City of Goshen

3 L.R.A. 261, 20 N.E. 115, 117 Ind. 221, 1889 Ind. LEXIS 137
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 1889
DocketNo. 13,392
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 3 L.R.A. 261 (Bills v. City of Goshen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bills v. City of Goshen, 3 L.R.A. 261, 20 N.E. 115, 117 Ind. 221, 1889 Ind. LEXIS 137 (Ind. 1889).

Opinion

Olds, J. —

On the 19th day of January, 1885, the common council of the city of Goshen passed the following ordinance:

“ Ordinance No. 55.
In relation to licensing shows and other amusements.
Section 1. It shall not be lawful for any person to own, conduct or manage for gain, within the city, any theater, circus, caravan, roller skating-rink, or other exhibition, show or amusement, or exhibit any natural or artificial curiosities, Or panorama or other show or device of any kind, or give any concert or other musical entertainment without a license! Provided, That for musical parties or concerts, and exhibitions of paintings and statuary, given or made by citizens of this city, no license shall be required; and also lectures on historical, scientific, benevolent or literary subjects, and the apparatus for the elucidation of the same, and the specimens of fine art, shall be deemed within this proviso.
Sec. 2.' License shall be granted by the mayor upon written application of any one, for any of the purposes aforesaid, upon the payment into the city treasury of such sum of money as the mayor or common council shall determine in each particular case : Provided, That for a circus or animal show or caravan, the license shall not be granted for a less sum than ten dollars.
“ Sec. 3. Any person that shall violate any of these provisions of this ordinance, or who shall refuse or fail to comply with any or either of the requirements thereof, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars and costs.
[223]*223Sec. 4. This ordinance shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication for two consecutive weeks in the Goshen Times.”

On the 9th day of February, 1885, the following further proceedings were had by the common council: “ Councilman Drake moved that the license fee for skating-rinks be fixed at one hundred and fifty dollars per annum, and that the manager of the rink be required to pay that amount, his license to date from Monday, February 16th, 1885. The motion was seconded by Councilman Scott, and carried. Councilman Drake moved that the manager of the rink be required to pay his license in two instalments, semi-annually in advance, which motion was carried.”

On the 5th day of March, 1886, this action was commenced before one E. L. Billings, who was the then acting mayor of the city, charging appellant with a violation of sections 1 and 3 of this ordinance. A conviction was had and an appeal taken to the circuit court, and there an amended complaint was filed, setting out in such amended complaint the ordinance and the action taken by the common council as hereinbefore set out, and alleging that the appellant was engaged in said city in managing, running and operating a roller skating-rink for hire and gain on, and prior to, the 16th day of February, 1885; that the city offered to him a license duly issued and demanded of him the first payment; that appellant refused to pay and accept the license, and charging that he violated sections 1 and 3 of the ordinance, on the 16th day of February, 1885, in that he did then and there unlawfully for gain own, conduct, operate and manage a roller skating-rink without having first obtained a-license.

Appellant filed a demurrer to the complaint, for the cause that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, which demurrer was overruled by the court, to which ruling appellant at the time excepted.

Appellant then filed an answer, to which answer appellee [224]*224demurred. The demurrer was sustained and appellant excepted.

Errors are assigned on the ruling of the court on the demurrers to the complaint and answer.

The question presented and argued is as to the validity of the ordinance.

Section 3099, R. S. 1881, declares : “All by-laws and ordinances shall, within a reasonable time after their passage, be recorded in a book kept for that purpose, and shall be signed by the presiding officer of the city, and attested by the clerk.”

Section 3106, defining the powers of the common council, provides that they shall have the management and control of the finances of the city, and of all property, real and personal, belonging thereto; and shall have the additional powers therein permitted, and may make and publish by-laws and ordinances necessary to enforce the same. ■ The common council shall have the power to enforce ordinances.

The fourteenth and fifteenth subdivisions of the section are as follows:

“Fourteenth. To regulate and restrain all tables, alleys, machines, devices, or places of any kind for sports or games, kept for hire or pay, or to prohibit the use of the same, as aforesaid, if deemed expedient, without a license being first obtained therefor; and, if deemed necessary to preserve peace, good order, and morality; to prohibit the use of the same, as aforesaid, by the infliction of such penalties as this áct will permit, to be provided for by ordinance.
“Fifteenth. To regulate and restrain all theatrical and other exhibitions and public shows for which money is demanded or received; and, if deemed expedient, to prohibit the same without a license having been first obtained therefor.”

It is by virtue of these sections of the statute that the city is given whatever power and right she has to regulate games [225]*225and sports, and prohibit the same without license, and to provide for licensing the same.

Section 3100 declares: Every by-law imposing a penalty or forfeiture for the violation thereof, shall, before the same shall take effect, be published two weeks consecutively in some newspaper printed in the city.”

„ The words ordinance ” and by-law ” are used interchangeably in the statute, and they are synonymous. Horr & Bemis Municipal Police Ordinances, section 1, defining ordinance, says : “ Municipal ordinances are laws passed by the governing body of a municipal corporation for the regulation of the affairs of the corporation. The term ordinance is now the usual denomination of such acts, although in England and in some of the States the technically more correct term by-law or bye-law is in common and approved use. The main feature of such enactments is their local as distinguished from the general applicability of the State laws ; hence the word law, with the prefix by or bye, should in strictness be preferred to the word ordinance.”

By the authority vested by statute the city passed the ordinance in question in this case, prohibiting persons from doing the things therein designated within the city limits, providing for a license permitting them to engage in such pursuits as named in the ordinance, and fixing a penalty for the violation of such ordinance. If the ordinance was valid, the violation of the ordinance would consist in engaging in such pursuits, and in this instance the violation would have consisted in owning, conducting or managing a roller skating-rink without having procured a license so to do.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Randall v. Town of Highland
416 N.E.2d 891 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1981)
City of Hammond v. Red Top Trucking Co., Inc.
409 N.E.2d 655 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1980)
Antonelli Construction, Inc. v. Milstead
112 A.2d 608 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1955)
Schloss Poster Advertising Co. v. City of Rock Hill
2 S.E.2d 392 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1939)
City of Juneau v. Badger Co-operative Oil Co.
279 N.W. 666 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1938)
State v. Thompson
190 A. 255 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1937)
American Baseball Club v. Philadelphia
167 A. 891 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1933)
Edwards & Browne Coal Co. v. City of Sioux
240 N.W. 711 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1932)
State v. Douglas
144 N.E. 548 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1924)
City of St. Louis v. Kellman
243 S.W. 134 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1922)
State v. Coleman
113 A. 385 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1921)
State v. Scott
196 P. 576 (Washington Supreme Court, 1921)
Lotspeich v. Mayor of Morristown
141 Tenn. 113 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1918)
Calhoun v. City of Seattle
215 F. 226 (W.D. Washington, 1914)
American Malleables Co. v. Town of Bloomfield
85 A. 167 (Supreme Court of New Jersey, 1912)
City of St. Louis v. Atlantic Quarry & Construction Co.
148 S.W. 948 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1912)
Ensley ex rel. Brown v. State
88 N.E. 62 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1909)
City of Elkhart v. Murray
75 N.E. 593 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1905)
State ex rel. Davis v. Board of Commissioners
74 N.E. 1091 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1905)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 L.R.A. 261, 20 N.E. 115, 117 Ind. 221, 1889 Ind. LEXIS 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bills-v-city-of-goshen-ind-1889.