Bragg v. Adams

21 S.W.2d 950, 180 Ark. 582, 1929 Ark. LEXIS 334
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 2, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 21 S.W.2d 950 (Bragg v. Adams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bragg v. Adams, 21 S.W.2d 950, 180 Ark. 582, 1929 Ark. LEXIS 334 (Ark. 1929).

Opinion

Butler, J.

The appellees, plaintiffs, residents of the incorporated town of West Memphis, brought suit in the chancery court to enjoin the mayor and marshal from collecting a license on their hotel buildings, under the provisions of an ordinance passed some time previous to the filing of their complaint, on the ground that the ordinance was void because its purpose was to raise revenue, and because tbe town bad no authority to pass an ordinance licensing hotels.

The appellants, defendants, defended on the ground that the ordinance was not a revenue measure, and that it was a valid exercise of the police power of the town. There was a decree perpetually enjoining the appellants from enforcing or attempting to enforce the provisions of the ordinance, from which this appeal is prosecuted, the appellants relying for the authority to pass the ordinance on the general grant of police powers to municipal corporations, now found at §§ 7974 and 7529 of Crawford & Moses’ Digest.

The appellees contend, for an affirmance of ^the decree, that the ordinance which was exhibited with their complaint in the court below showed on its face that it was a measure for raising revenue, and further, that there was no authority given to municipal corporations to regulate hotels, but that such authority was taken away from municipal corporations and invested in the State Board of Health by the provisions of act No. 210 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 1917, creating a Bureau of Sanitation. The appellants contend that the language of § 7529, supra, gave the right to regulate hotels and other places of entertainment, and implies the power of restraining and regulating as to the manner of conducting that particular business, and also as to the building or erection in or upon which the business is to be conducted, and that this right is further given by § 7494 of C. &M. Digest. These two sections are as follows:

“Section 7529. They (municipal corporations) shall have the power to prevent injury or annoyance within the limits of the corporation from anything dangerous, offensive or unhealthy, * * * to establish and regulate markets, * * * to prevent any riots, noise, disturbance, or disorderly assemblages, * * * and to regulate or suppress bawdy or disorderly houses, houses of ill-fame or assignation.” ■
Section 7494. “It is made the duty of the municipal corporation to publish such by-laws and ordinances as shall ¡be necessary to secure such corporations and their inhabitants against injuries by fire, etc., * * ; for the suppression of riots, and gambling, and indecent and disorderly conduct; for the punishment of ¡all lewd and las,civious behavior in the streets and other public places; and they shall-have power to make and publish such bylaws ¡and ordinances, not inconsistent with the laws of this State, as to them shall seem necessary to provide for the safety, preserve the health, promote the prosperity and improve the morals, order, comfort and convenience of such corporations and the inhabitants thereof. ’ ’

The appellants say that the purpose of § 5454 of Kirby’s Digest, in which the right to regulate hotels and places of entertainment was given, meant something more than a provision authorizing an inspection to see that the place was run in an orderly manner. Section 5454 Kirby’s Digest is as follows:

“'Section 5454. They shall have power to license, regulate or prohibit all theatrical exhibitions and public shows, and all exhibitions of whatever name or nature. Provided, lectures on science; historical or literary subjects shall not be included within the provisions of this section; to regulate or prohibit the sale of all horses or other domestic animals at auction in the streets, alleys or highways; to regulate all carts, wagons, drays, hackney coaches, omnibuses and ferries, and every description of carriages which may be kept for hire, and all livery stables; to regulate hotels and other houses for public entertainment, and to regulate or to prohibit ale and porter shops or houses, and public places of habitual resort for tippling and intemperance, and to declare what are such.”

These various sections were all parts of an act of the General Assembly, approved March 9, 1875, entitled, “An act for the incorporation, organization and government of municipal corporations.” Section 7529 of Crawford & Moses’ Digest was § 12, § 7494, Crawford & Moses’ Digest, was § 22, and § 5454, Kirby’s Digest, was § 17 of that act. Section 22 (§ 7494, C. & M.) provided for the enactment of ordinances to carry into effect the powers conferred by the provisions of the act, and did not enlarge the powers conferred by the special provisions of § 12 (§ 7529, C. & M.), Tuck v. Town of Waldron, 31 Ark. 462, or of § 17 (§ 5454, Kirby’s Digest), so that the power of municipal corporations to regulate hotels must be found in the provisions of § 12 and § 17, supra. By § 17, which gave municipal corporations the power to regulate hotels and other houses of public entertainment, the Legislature clearly recognized the fact that such power had not been given by § 12, ante.; by § 12 it was-only those occupations or conduct that were “dangerous, offensive or unhealthy, to establish and regulate markets, * * * to prevent any riots, noise, disturbances or disorderly assemblages; * * * and to regulate or suppress bawdy or disorderly houses, houses of ill-fame or assignation,” that were included within the general powers of municipal corporations to regulate or suppress; and, as by § 17 the Legislature gave municipal corporations the power to regulate hotels, it is clear that such did not come within the meaning or intention of the language used in § 12.

The appellants contend, however, that the case of Carpenter v. Little Rock, 101 Ark. 238, 142 S. W. 162, is authority for the contention that the ordinance in the case at bar comes within the scope and is authorized by §§ 7529 and 7494 of C. & M. Digest. In that case the court decided that an act of the General Assembly making it unlawful for any city council to impose a license or to hinder or interfere in any manner with those selling- products of the farm, including meats from domestic animals and live stock, did not prohibit the city of Little Rock, a city of the first class, from providing by ordinance for the proper inspection of milk and meats before they were sold, nor for a reasonable fee to be exacted to cover cost of inspection; that the act of the Legislature then under consideration did not cover the whole subject of powers of cities to prevent and regulate the carrying on of any trade of a tendency dangerous to morals, health or safety of its inhabitants, and held that, by § 5461 of Kirby’s Digest (§ 7494, C. & M.), the city had the right to enact an ordinance for the preservation of the health of its citizens under subdivision 4 of § 5648 of Kirby’s Digest (§ 7684, C. & M. Dig.), which provided that cities of the first and second class might “prevent or regulate the carrying on of any trade, business or vocation of a tendency dangerous to morals, health or safety,” and that the inspection of milk and meat might well be said to be necessary for the public health, in that by that means the community was secured pure and wholesome food. As cities of the first class have enlarged powers over incorporated towns given toy § 7684, C. & M. Digest, and as the case of Carpenter v.

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Bluebook (online)
21 S.W.2d 950, 180 Ark. 582, 1929 Ark. LEXIS 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bragg-v-adams-ark-1929.