City of Baton Rouge v. Norman

290 So. 2d 865, 1974 La. LEXIS 3487
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedFebruary 18, 1974
Docket53868
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 290 So. 2d 865 (City of Baton Rouge v. Norman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Baton Rouge v. Norman, 290 So. 2d 865, 1974 La. LEXIS 3487 (La. 1974).

Opinion

290 So.2d 865 (1974)

CITY OF BATON ROUGE
v.
James NORMAN.

No. 53868.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

February 18, 1974.
Rehearing Denied March 22, 1974.

*866 Foye L. Lowe, Jr., DeBlieux & Lowe, Baton Rouge, for defendant-relator.

Donald R. Wilson, Richard W. Vidrine, Legal Interns, P. Raymond Lamonica, Supervising Atty., L. S. U. Clinical Legal Education Program, Baton Rouge, for plaintiff-respondent.

SUMMERS, Justice.

While on patrol about 3 or 3:30 o'clock on the morning of October 15, 1972, Police Officers Buller and Dillon observed a light blue pickup truck cruising slowly near the intersection of Cora and Parkview Streets in the Broadmoor area of the city of Baton Rouge. The slow progress of the truck and its maneuvers indicated to the officers that the driver was looking for something. Turning their headlights off, they followed at a distance.

They kept the truck in view as it cruised the neighborhood in a criss-cross pattern. When it arrived in the vicinity of 745 Woodhaven, it stopped. The driver got out and walked back about a block over the route he had just traveled to the residence of Nancy Guy at 745 Woodhaven Street. Moving onto the carport of the residence, he picked up an earthern vase and started back to the truck through the shrubbery in the yard.

In the meantime Officer Dillon had concealed himself nearby. As the truck driver emerged he saw Officer Dillon and tossed the pottery into the shrubbery. He was then confronted by the officer. Thereafter *867 the pottery was recovered, and the accused James Norman was identified, arrested and charged by affidavit in the City Court.

The affidavit charged Norman in two counts with violation

of The Baton Rouge City Code 13:425 (Theft) 2.12:150 (Trespassing) in that he
1. did take 1 carthern (sic) jug from Nancy Guy 745 Woodhaven value unknown with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of said merchandise.
2. entered upon the premises of another person without the consent of the owner.

After arraignment and several continuances granted on defendant's motion, he was tried in the City Court, found guilty on both charges and sentenced to thirty days in jail on each. He appealed to the District Court where the case was tried de novo. That court affirmed the conviction but remanded the case to the City Court to correct the erroneous thirty-day sentence on the trespassing charge for which the maximum penalty under the ordinance was twenty days.

From the judgment thus rendered defendant applied to this Court to review his conviction and sentence under its supervisory authority. Five assignments of error are urged to set aside the conviction and sentence.

I.

When the evidence in chief had been introduced on behalf of the prosecution on the trial de novo in the district court, the trespass ordinance was introduced into evidence (Section 150, Title 12 of the Baton Rouge City Code); whereupon defendant, through counsel, filed a motion to quash the ordinance alleging that it was overbroad on its face and vague as to just what acts constituted the offense. Defense counsel also orally moved for "a directed verdict of acquittal and/or a mistrial as to count one of the affidavit." A bill of exceptions was reserved to the ruling of the court denying the motion to quash.

The ordinance in question provides:

Whoever shall enter into the house or enter upon the premises or within the enclosure of another person, without the consent or permission of the owner, agent or possessor of said house, premises or enclosure, shall be guilty of trespass, which is hereby declared to be a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined not exceeding twenty-five dollars ($25.00) or imprisoned not exceeding twenty (20) days for each and every offense.

The time to file a motion to quash is before trial, La.Code Crim.Proc. art. 535. This motion to quash was filed after trial commenced despite the fact that the ordinance was cited in the affidavit charging defendant. However, fundamental grounds such as the invalidity of the statute upon which the prosecution is based are not waived by failure to urge them by motion to quash prior to trial. To the contrary, the validity of the statute upon which the prosecution is based is "within the scope of appellate review without prior objection, under Art. 920(2), since it is an error discoverable by a mere inspection of the pleadings and proceedings and without inspection of the evidence." Official Revision Comment, La.Code Crim. Proc. art. 535.

We proceed, therefore, to a consideration of the validity of the ordinance on constitutional grounds. In doing so we are reminded that in Louisiana this Court has consistently adhered to the doctrine that every presumption of law and fact must be indulged in favor of the constitutionality of legislation, it being the expression of the will of the people. And "the burden of establishing the unconstitutionality of the statute rests upon the party who assails it." State v. Guidry, 247 La. 631, 173 So.2d 192 (1965).

*868 Charges brought attacking the constitutionality of criminal statutes based upon the contention that they are vague and overbroad have generally been decided in Louisiana on the principle embodied in Article I, Section 10, that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him. These attacks also present due process questions, for due process is undoubtedly denied when a person is convicted upon the authority of a statute which the constitution prohibits the legislature from enacting. U.S.Const. Amends. V and XIV; Cramp v. Board of Public Instruction, 368 U.S. 278, 82 S.Ct. 275, 7 L.Ed.2d 285 (1961); La.Const. Art. I ¶¶ 2, 6.

Generally the objection that a statute is vague and overbroad may be satisfied by language which provides an adequate warning as to what conduct is proscribed and which marks boundaries sufficiently distinct for judges and juries to administer the law in accordance with the legislative will. United States v. Petrillo, 332 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 1538, 91 L.Ed. 1877 (1946).

The requirement of definitness need only give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his conduct is criminal. To accomplish this the legislature may employ generic terms. Cumbersome enumeration or explicit delineation of all possible situations is not required. "The enumeration in a statute of every item or variation in conduct is frequently impossible." State v. Wierner, 245 La. 889, 161 So.2d 755 (1964). See also State v. Willis, 253 La. 893, 221 So.2d 39 (1969); State v. Bourg, 248 La. 844, 182 So.2d 510 (1966); State v. Truby, 211 La. 178, 29 So.2d 758 (1947); State v. Hunter, 164 La. 405, 114 So. 76 (1927).

In light of these principles it cannot be said that persons of ordinary intelligence are unable to know that the ordinance prohibits entering "upon the premises of another person, without the consent or permission of the owner." That is the context of this prosecution, and this defendant could know that he was violating the law when he went upon the carport without the owner's consent.

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290 So. 2d 865, 1974 La. LEXIS 3487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-baton-rouge-v-norman-la-1974.