Bloom v. City of Xenia

32 Ohio St. (N.S.) 461
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1877
StatusPublished

This text of 32 Ohio St. (N.S.) 461 (Bloom v. City of Xenia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bloom v. City of Xenia, 32 Ohio St. (N.S.) 461 (Ohio 1877).

Opinion

Wright, J.

Wendell Bloom was prosecuted, under an ordinance of the town of Xenia, which prohibited ale, beer, and porter-houses and shops, etc. The defense made by Bloom, which we shall consider here, was, that the ordinance in question was not properly passed, and was therefore a nullity.

At a meeting of the town council of Xenia, held September 27, 1869, there were six members present, eight being the full number. The ordinance committee reported two ordinances, one relating to elections, and the other, being the one in question, to prohibit ale, beer, and porterhouses and shops, etc. The rules were suspended, by vote of all six councilmen present, the yeas and nays being duly entered on the journal. Thereupon the first ordinance was passed, and without any other or further .suspension of the rules, the second ordinance was passed, one member voting against it. Eor a violation of this ordinance, Bloom was fined $25 by the mayor, and this writ of error is prosecuted to reverse the judgment.

Section 98 of the municipal code, 66 Ohio L. 166, is as follows:

“All by-laws, resolutions, and ordinances of a general or permanonx nature, shall be fully and distinctly read on three different days, unless three-fourths of all the members elected shall dispense with the rule ; and the vote on such suspension shall be taken by yeas and nays and entered on the journal.”

Bloom now claims that the ordinance was introduced and passed on the same day, not having been read on three different days, and that the rules were not properly sus[463]*463pended, inasmuch as under one suspension both ordinances were adopted.

'Whether provisions like that of section 98 are mandatory or directory is a question, with regard to which a contrariety of opinion exists. In New York they are held to be directory merely. Doughty v. Hope, 8 Den. 252. In the matter of Mount Morris Square, 2 Hill, 20; Striker v. Kelly, 7 Hill, 9, although in this ease Brunson dissents; Elmendorf v. Mayor, 25 Wend. 696; Massachusetts is to the contrary; Morrison v. City of Lawrence, 98 Mass. 219.

New Jersey seems to hold to strictness in the passage of ordinances. Stale v. City of Hudson, 5 Dutch. 478.

Such also is the holding in Indiana. City of Delphi v. Evans, 36 Ind. 90.

Again, Pennsylvania holds that a provision in a statute, that existing borough ordinances shall remain in force, provided that they shall be recorded within four months, thereafter, is merely directory; and a non-compliance therewith does not affect the validity of such ordinances. Trustees of the Erie Academy v. City of Erie, 31 Pa. St. 515; Whalin v. Macomb, 76 Ill. 49.

In this state it is held that certain provisions of the constitution are directory to the legislature, and not mandatory, as in Miller & Gibson v. State, 3 Ohio St. 475.

Article 11, section 10, that “ no bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title,” is held to be directory in Pim v. Nicholson, 6 Ohio St. 177.

The clause of section 16, article 2, which provides that “ the section or sections so amended shall be repealed,” is directory to the general assembly. Lehman v. McBride, 15 Ohio St. 573.

Section 16, article 2, which provides that “ no bill shall contain more than one subject,” is directory merely. The State ex rel. Attorney-General v. Covington, 29 Ohio St. 103.

Similar constitutional provisions are held directory in California, Maryland, and Mississippi, but they are recognized and enforced as mandatory in Alabama, Georgia, [464]*464Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Tuscaloosa Bridge Co. v. Olmstead, 41 Ala. 9; Weaver v. Lapsley, 48 Ala. 224; Cooley Cons. Lim. 74 Giddings v. San Antonio, 47 Texas, 548; Ind. Cen. R. R. v. Potts, 7 Ind. 681; Walker v. Caldwell, 4 La. Ann. 297; State v. Miller, 45 Mo. 495; People v. McConnell, 35 N. Y. 449 ; Cannon v. Hemphill, 7 Tex. 184; City of San Antonio v. Gould, 7 Tex. 49; Supervisors v. Heenan, 2 Minn. 330; People v. Lawrence, 36 Hart. 177; State v. Rogers, 10 Nev. 250.

The rule, therefore, being established in this state as to-legislative action, shall the same latitude be allowed to municipal councils as to the general assembly?

The efforts of courts are to sustain acts of the legislature; they will not be declared unconstitutional unless-clearly so. The legislative is a co-ordinate branch of the-court with the judicial, and the proceedings of the one will not be lightly interfered with by the other. As is said in Miller § Gibson v. State, p. 482: “ Nor is it to be forgotten that every reasonable intendment is to be made in favor of the proceedings of tho legislature. It is not to be presumed that the assembly, or either house of it, has violated the constitution.”

This further remark may be made with regard to the general assembly. By the terms of the organic law, “ the legislative power of the state ” is declared to be “ vested in the general assembly.” This grant of power is general in its terms, not special; it embraces all such legislative power as the people of the state could, under the federal constitution, confer — the whole “ legislative power of the state.” The limitations upon the exercise of this power thus broadly conferred, are special, and are to be found in other parts of the same instrument. When, therefore, the power of the legislature to enact a given law is disputed, the proper question is, whether such exercise of legislative power is clearly prohibited by the constitution. The grant of power being general, the question is as to the existence of a lim[465]*465itation arising from special prohibition. Lehman v. McBride, 15 Ohio St. 592.

In marked contrast to this view of the general assembly, is that which the law takes of the municipal corporation. Its power is strictly limited. It has that which is expressly granted or clearly implied, and no other; and doubtful claims to power are resolved against it. Minturn v. Larue, 23 How. 435.

The restrictions upon the municipality and the powers-of the legislature are thus illustrated in Thompson v. Lee County, 3 Wall. 330: “A county or other municipal corporation has no inherent right of legislation, and cannot subscribe for stock in a public improvement, unless authorized to do so by the legislature. Snch a. corporation acts wholly under a delegated authority,, and can exercise no power which is not in express terms, or by fair implication, conferred upon it. But the-legislature of a state, unless restrained by the organic-law, has the right to authorize a municipal corporation to take stock in a railroad or other work of internal improvement.”

Similar views are held in Clark, Dodge & Co. v. City of Davenport, 14 Iowa, 495; Nichol v. Mayor, 9 Humph. 252,

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Bluebook (online)
32 Ohio St. (N.S.) 461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bloom-v-city-of-xenia-ohio-1877.