City of Corinth v. Sharp

65 So. 888, 107 Miss. 696
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 65 So. 888 (City of Corinth v. Sharp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Corinth v. Sharp, 65 So. 888, 107 Miss. 696 (Mich. 1914).

Opinion

Reed, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

An affidavit was made before the mayor of the city of Corinth charging appellee with assault and battery, in violation of an ordinance of that city. On the hearing [703]*703in the circuit court, the ordinance which appellant was charged with violating was held invalid, and he was acquitted.

We give below the entries on the minute book of the city of Corinth for the year 1899, showing the passage of the city ordinance in question:

“Minutes City of Corinth, June 5,1899, page 65. May- or’s office, Corinth, Miss., June 5th, 1899.
“The board met in regularly monthly session, called to order by Mayor Henry. President: T. E. Henry, mayor, C. W. Burgess, E. B. Hollingsworth, Dr. T. Bor-roum, aldermen.
“June 5, 1899, page 69.
“Be it ordained by the mayor and board of aldermen of the city of Corinth that it shall be unlawful for any person to commit an assault or an assault and battery upon another within the incorporate limits of the city of Corinth; and any person violating this ordinance shall be guilty of an offense against said city and shall be fined in any sum not exceeding fifty dollars for each offense, and shall stand committed until fine and costs are paid.
“June 5, 1899, page 77. (Minutes signed by)
“T. E. Henry, Mayor,
“S. L. Ward, Clerk.”

Appellee objected to the introduction of the ordiance and assigned the following reasons therefor:

“ (1) There is no number to the ordinance.
“ (2) There is no caption or heading to the ordinance.
“(3) Because it does not show that it was first reduced to writing and passed by a yea and nay vote.
“ (4) Because it was never published.
“ (5) Because the book in which the ordinance or purported ordinance was spread does not recite the time of passage, nor does the minute book show the adoption of the ordinance and the page thereof.”

The record in this case shows an agreement by counsel that the city of Corinth operates under a special charter, [704]*704and not under the Code chapter of this state on municipalities. The charter is contained in the act of the legislature of Mississippi passed March 12, 1884, and is chapter 403 of the Laws of 1884.

It is contended by appellee, that the formalities for the enactment and record of ordinances by municipalities provided in sections 3404, 3405, 3406, and 3407 of the Code of 1906 were not complied with when the ordinance was passed. It will be seen that the objections to the ordinance are in the main, based npon the provisions of the above sections.

Appellee is wrong in this contention. The code chapter on municipalities does not apply to the city of Corinth. See section 3440, Code of 1906; section 3035, Code of 1892. It was not necessary for the mayor and hoard of aldermen of the city to follow the requirements of the sections referred to in enacting the ordinance. The city of Corinth received its power for local self-government, including the authority to enact by-laws, ordinances, and local laws from its charter granted by the act of the legislature. We quote from the charter (chapter 403 of Acts of 1884) to show the power delegated by the legislature relating to the city’s government and to the making of necessary rules and laws:

“The legislative and contracting power of said city of Corinth shall he vested in the city council, composed of the mayor and aldermen, with power to make and establish rules for its own government;'to appoint the time of its meetings, and the manner of being convened in special meetings, ... to appoint a city clerk to register its proceedings and ordinances; ... to ordain all needful laws and regulations for preventing and suppressing disorderly conduct in individuals, and unlawful assemblies within said city. . . . The said mayor and aldermen in council shall have power to enact all ordinances and by-laws, not inconsistent with the laws of this state, or of the United tates, which may be necessary and [705]*705proper to enforce the powers delegated to them by this charter; also to prescribe in said ordinances such fines and forfeitures for violations of said laws and ordinances as they may deem expedient not exceeding fifty dollars for each offense, and imprisonment not exceeding ten days for a single offense, and all such ordinances to repeal, or modify at pleasure. ’ ’

There are no rules given in the charter specifying the mode for the enactment of ordinances. The legislature, in the charter, granted to the city the power to adopt its own rules for its own procedure and its own government. There are no limitations placed on the city in this respect. There are no prescribed formalities.

It is argued by appellant that the ordinance did not comply with the requirements of section 55 of the state Constitution, providing for the yeas and nays on questions, and section 71, requiring a bill to have a title indicating clearly the subject-matter of the proposed legislation. These constitutional provisions have no application to municipal ordinances. They are limited to state legislation. Dillon on Municipal Corporations (5th Ed.), sec. 72; People v. Wagner, 86 Mich. 594, 49 N. W. 609, 13 L. R. A. 286, 24 Am. St. Rep. 141.

We take the following from 28 Cyc., p. 378, on the effect of constitutional provisions:

“The provision commonly found in the legislative article of recent state Constitutions that no bill shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title, has been consistently construed by the courts to have no application to municipal ordinances and by-laws. Unless therefore there is some charter or statutory provision requiring it, no title need precede an ordinance; or, if a title is superscribed, an error in it will not vitiate the ordinance; nor will duplicity in the body of the ordinance invalidate it. ’ ’

The municipal board was given the power by its charter to adopt its own rules of government; it is not shown [706]*706in the record of .this case that any rules were adopted. The proof is wholly silent regarding this. However, if there were rules for procedure not fully followed, “a mere failure to conform to parliamentary usuage will not invalidate the action when the requisite number of members have agreed to the particular measure.” Mc-Quillin on Municipal Ordinances, par. 115. The same author, in the same paragraph of his excellent treatise on the Law of Municipal Ordinances, says:

“The action of municipal bodies exercising legislative functions should not be overthrown upon technical rules or strict construction of parliamentary law where the facts of such action can be gathered from the record.” Continuing, he says:
“In reference to the action of county boards, the supreme court of Wisconsin has timely observed: ‘It will not do to apply to the orders and resolutions of such bodies nice verbal criticism and strict parliamentary distinctions, because the business is transacted generally by plain men not familiar with parliamentary law.

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Bluebook (online)
65 So. 888, 107 Miss. 696, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-corinth-v-sharp-miss-1914.