Churchill v. City of Albany

133 P. 632, 65 Or. 442, 1913 Ore. LEXIS 282
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 24, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 133 P. 632 (Churchill v. City of Albany) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Churchill v. City of Albany, 133 P. 632, 65 Or. 442, 1913 Ore. LEXIS 282 (Or. 1913).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Ramsey

delivered the opinion of the court.

The ordinance upon which this suit is based is set out in full in the amended complaint, and is in the following words:

“Every person, firm, company, or corporation owning or conducting any cigar-store, soft-drink parlor, [444]*444billiard or pool parlor, restaurant or other like place of business in the city of Albany, selling or dealing in soft drinks or bottled goods, shall close or cause to be closed such place or places of business at the hour of 12 o’clock midnight, and keep the same so closed until the hour of five o’clock in the morning following: and any person, firm, company or corporation violating any of the provisions of this section shall upon conviction thereof before the city recorder be punished by a fine of not less than $5.00 nor more than $25.00.”

The appellant is engaged in the business of catering in the City of Albany, and has, at large expense, fitted up his place of business with the intention of providing the people of Albany and Linn County with a convenient and attractive place for the purpose of serving lunches, banquets and dinners, and has an attractive and convenient lunchroom and banquet hall as a part of his place of business, and he serves lunches and banquets for hire. The appellant has two rooms, one constituting the lunchroom and banquet hall, and the other is used as a store, where he keeps for sale and sells candies, ice cream, soda water, lemonade, and similar articles of merchandise. His two rooms are so situated that persons going to or from his lunchroom and banquet hall must go through his storeroom, but he alleges that he does not keep the storeroom open to make sales after midnight, and that it is kept open after midnight only for the purpose of enabling persons to pass to and from his lunchroom and banquet hall, which at times is kept open until after midnight.

The appellant alleges also that there are ten or more-persons, firms, and corporations in the City of Albany besides himself who prepare and serve lunches and banquets to the same class of lodges and people to whom the appellant caters, and that these persons, firms, and corporations have no place or room in connection with their place of business where soft drinks [445]*445or bottled goods are kept for sale. The appellant contends that said ordinance is void, and that its enforcement, under the circumstances, would be of great and irreparable injury to him and his business.

1. The question for decision on this appeal being whether the respondents’ demurrer should be sustained, the material allegations of the amended complaint, properly pleaded, are deemed to be true.

2. This suit was brought to enjoin the enforcement of the said ordinance on the alleged grounds that the ordinance is void, and that its enforcement would greatly injure the appellant’s business described in the amended complaint. We have no doubt that courts of equity have jurisdiction to enjoin the threatened enforcement of a void ordinance when it is shown that its enforcement would result in irreparable injury to the plaintiff’s business or property: See Dillon, Munic. Corp. (5 ed.), § 582; Sandys v. Williams, 46 Or. 327 (80 Pac. 642); McQuillan, Munic. Corp., § 805.

3. The charter of the City of Albany confers on that city power to “regulate” all business and professional occupations and callings within the city. The appellant correctly contends that the power thus conferred on the city is a general one, and that all ordinances passed to enforce it must be reasonable. An ordinance based upon a general or an implied grant of power must be reasonable, or it will be void: 28 Cyc. 762, 763.

4, 5. The appellant contends that the ordinance under consideration is unreasonable and void. It requires every person, firm or corporation owning or conducting any cigar-store, soft-drink parlor, billiard or pool parlor, restaurant, or like place of business in the City of Albany selling or dealing in soft drinks or bottled goods to close or cause to be closed such place or places of business at the hour of 12 o’clock mid[446]*446night, and to keep the same so closed until the hour of 5 o’clock in the morning following, and it prescribes, as a punishment for a violation of this ordinance, a fine of not less than $5 nor more than $25. The words of this ordinance make it applicable only to persons, firms and corporations owning or carrying on a cigar-store, soft-drink parlor, billiard or pool parlor, restaurant, and other like places of business that deal in “soft drinks” or “bottled goods.” It is clearly restricted to such places only as deal in that sort of “goods.”

It was the intention of the council to compel all such places to close at midnight. The council very likely believed that “soft drinks” and “bottled goods” were not as “soft” as the unsophisticated may believe them to be, and concluded that compelling dealers in such “goods” to close at midnight would be promotive of good government in the city. Under the grant of power in the charter to regulate business houses, the city had the power to close such places at midnight or earlier. Perhaps it was fitting that such places should close at “midnight,” as Shakespeare says:

“’Tis now the very witching time of night;
When graveyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.”

The ordinance is reasonable and valid, unless it is vitiated by Section 20 of Article I of the Constitution of the state, which provides: “No law.shall be passed granting to any citizen or class of citizens, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.”

6. Legislation which affects all persons pursuing the same business under substantially the same conditions is not such class legislation as is prohibited by said section of our Constitution: In re Oberg, 21 Or. 407 (28 Pac. 130, 14 L. R. A. 577); State v. Randolph, 23 Or. 74 (31 Pac. 201, 17 L. R. A. 470, 37 Am. St. Rep. 655). [447]*447The ordinance affects only those persons, firms, and corporations owning or conducting places of business that deal in “soft drinks” or “bottled goods,” and it affects all of that class alike. It is general as applied to all of that class. It has not been shown that it exempts any place of business that deals in “soft drinks” or “bottled goods.” It was not intended to affect places that do not deal in such drinks or goods. We think that the classification adopted by the city is reasonable and uniform.

7. It is a general rule that ordinances, in order to be valid, must be general in their nature and impartial in their operation: 21 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law (2 ed.), pp. 983, 984. But, according to the authority just cited, there may be circumstances under which this rule of uniformity does not obtain (see page 984); but we do not deem it necessary to go into that question, as we believe this ordinance is valid under the general rule.

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Bluebook (online)
133 P. 632, 65 Or. 442, 1913 Ore. LEXIS 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/churchill-v-city-of-albany-or-1913.