Case v. City of Tulsa

1923 OK 90, 212 P. 998, 88 Okla. 233, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 606
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 13, 1923
Docket13956
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1923 OK 90 (Case v. City of Tulsa) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Case v. City of Tulsa, 1923 OK 90, 212 P. 998, 88 Okla. 233, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 606 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

BRANSON, J.

The plaintiff herein, Charlie Case, filed his petition in this court on November 18, 1922, invoking the original jurisdiction of this court under section 2, art. 7, of the state Constitution, to issue, among other writs, a writ of prohibition, and in his petition prays that this court grant a writ of prohibition against the defendants therein named, to wit, the city of Tulsa, Reece Moran, chief of police of the city of Tulsa, and S. E. Dunn, judge of the municipal court of the city of Tulsa, prohibiting the said, defendants from exercising the jurisdiction assumed in a cause instituted in said court, entitled, “State of Oklahoma and City of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Municipal Corporation, v. One Ford Touring Car Automobile,” and which proceeding is instituted for the purpo.se of confiscating the automobile therein mentioned, and which is the property of the plaintiff.

The plaintiff in .his petition, among other things, says that on the 10th day of October, 1922, the chief of police of the city of Tulsa seized the said Ford touring car, and is seeking to have the same condemned by an order and judgment of the municipal court of the said city of Tulsa, on the ground that said car, when seized, was being used for unlawfully transporting intoxicating liquors within the city limits of the said city of Tulsa, and that the judge of said court, to wit, the said respondent, S. E. Dunn, has assumed jurisdiction in said matter, and is about to try said case. Plaintiff further states that said municipal court is without jurisdiction to proceed in the action, for numerous reasons herein presently set out.

An alternative writ of prohibition was issued, and the defendants filed thejr response to said writ, in which they admit that the said Ford touring car was being held by the defendant, Reece Moran, chief of police of the city of Tulsa, to be forfeited as provided by law, after due and legal hearing before S. E. Dunn, judge of the municipal court of said city, in the event the municipal court should render a judgment of forfeiture against said car, it having been charged by the defendant Reece Moran that said car has been used for the purpose of transporting intoxicating liquor within the limits of said city, in violation of the prohibitory laws of the state of Oklahoma. Said return further denies . that the said municipal court is without jurisdiction to proceed for any reasons alleged in plaintiff’s petition, and denies that the plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law, and denies that said proceeding is a civil action, but says that said proceeding is in the nature of a criminal action.

Upon the filing of said return, plaintiff filed his motion for judgment on the pleadings, and upon this record the matter is submitted to this court. '

Plaintiff in his brief says:

(1) That this court has jurisdiction to grant the writ.

(2) That chapter 199, Session Laws of 1919, is inoperative in so far as the city of Tulsa is concerned, and that any and all attempts to exercise jurisdictional functions by said court is void.

(3) That the charter of the city of Tulsa provides for a municipal court for the said city, and that the Legislature is without authority to create a municipal court therefor.

(4) That the city of Tulsa is a city of the first class, operated under a charter form of government, and Legislature could not *234 create such a court when the charter had provided for a municipal court.

(5) That the attempted proceedings in the municipal court of the city of Tulsa are in violation of the laws of the state of Oklahoma, in this, to wit, that the laws of the state of Oklahoma provide that all property sought to be confiscated shall be by the officer taken possession of and delivered to the sheriff of the county.

(6) That the statute creating the municipal court makes no provision for the summoning or impaneling of a jury to try a case of confiscation, as the court is attempting to do in this case, and for that reason the proceeding in this court would be vox. and in violation of the constitutional rignts of the plaintiff herein.

(7) That the statute creating said court makes no provision for an appeal in a civil case, but provides that all appeals shall be prosecuted to the Criminal Court of Appeals, which would have no jurisdiction in a case of this character.

The first contention as hereinabove set out is not disputed.

The second contention cannot be sustained, under the constitutional provision of this state, authorizing cities to adopt a charter form of government, and the decisions thereon. Section 3, art. 18, Williams’ Constitution; In re Cloherty (Wash.) 27 Pac. 1064; State v. Scales, 21 Okla. 683, 97 Pac. 584, and cases there cited; Ex parte Shaw, 53 Okla. 654, 157 Pac. 900; C. W. Bishop v. City of Tulsa (not officially reported as yet, but found in the Appellate Court Reporter, vol. 19, No. 12, page 181) decided by -Criminal Court of Appeals September 21, 1922.

This also answers the third and fourth contentions of plaintiff.

The fifth contention of the plaintiff is. that said act never intended to vest in said municipal court the power to try and confiscate property used in violation of the prohibitory laws of the state, for the reason that the Legislature of 1919 enacted chapter 19 of the Session Acts thereby, under which officers who seize liquors or personal property used for the purposes of violating any of the prohibitory or gambling laws of the state, should turn same over to the sheriff of the county, which act became effective March 15, 1919.

Said chapter 19 is a general statute, and applies to all the officers in the state who may seize intoxicating liquors or personal property used in violating the prohibitory or gambling laws, and there is nothing in the general provisions of said act which does in any wise conflict with the special provisions-of the act of the same Legislature creating the municipal court. Under the provisions of the said municipal court bill, all process and writs may be issued either to the chief of police of the city or the sheriff of the-county. Should the chief of police in the instant case turn over to the sheriff of the county the automobile in question, and the municipal court should enter judgment ordering said property confiscated and sold as provided by law, the municipal court could issue its order to the sheriff with the same force and effect as the county court in a like proceeding could do.

In support of his contention Ño. 6, plaintiff in his brief says that under the said municipal court bill, while (he jury commissioners are required to select and prepare a list of not less than 300 qualified persons as petit jurors, in the same manner as jurors are selected for the county court, there is no provision in the said municipal court bill for summoning, impaneling, or paying, said jurors, and that the city of Tulsa, not being liable for the jury services, the county could not pay for such jury services, and for these reasons the statute is inadequate to provide a jury for said court, and the court is without the necessary machinery to administer justice in the character of case now at bar.

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Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 90, 212 P. 998, 88 Okla. 233, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 606, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/case-v-city-of-tulsa-okla-1923.