City of Fort Scott v. Arbuckle

187 P.2d 348, 164 Kan. 49, 1947 Kan. LEXIS 371
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedDecember 6, 1947
DocketNo. 36,879; No. 36,880; No. 36,881
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 187 P.2d 348 (City of Fort Scott v. Arbuckle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Fort Scott v. Arbuckle, 187 P.2d 348, 164 Kan. 49, 1947 Kan. LEXIS 371 (kan 1947).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Smith, J.:

In each of these three cases the defendant was convicted in police court of disturbing the peace, in violation of a city ordinance. On appeal she was again found guilty on each charge. She has appealed. The cases were consolidated in the district court and have been consolidated on appeal.

Prior to submission in district court the city moved to dismiss each appeal on the ground the district court did not have jurisdiction to hear them because the defendant’s recognizances were not filed within ten days of the conviction in police court. Upon the hearing of this motion it appeared that the recognizances were filed [50]*50in time but that when filed they were signed by the sureties only and not by the defendant.

The trial court thereupon permitted the defendant to sign the recognizances even though more than ten days had elapsed since the conviction in police court. When the defendant had done this the motion to dismiss was overruled. The city has appealed, on a question reserved, from the order of the district court refusing to dismiss these appeals.

Appeals from the police courts of cities of the first class are taken pursuant to G. S. 1935, 13-611. That section provides as follows:

“In all cases before the police court, an appeal may be taken by the defendant to the district court in and for the county in which said city is situated; but no appeal shall be allowed unless such defendant shall, within ten days after such conviction, enter into a recognizance, with sufficient security, to be approved by the court, conditioned for his appearance at the district court of the county at the next term thereof to answer the complaint against him.”

Actions on forfeited recognizances given to perfect appeals from police courts are brought pursuant to G. S. 1935, 13-617. That section reads as follows:

“When any recognizance is declared forfeited, the city attorney shall forthwith cause the same to be prosecuted against the principal and security, or the surety alone.”

The city points out those two statutes and argues that it was the clear intent of the legislature that in order to perfect the appeal the recognizance provided for in G. S. 1935, 13-617, must have been signed by the principal as well as the sureties, and since this was not done until more than ten days after the judgment in police court it was too late and the appeals should have been dismissed.

This is too strained and strict a construction of these two statutes. Under the provisions of G. S. 1935, 13-617, the action on a forfeited recognizance may be brought against the principal and surety or the surety alone. This must be the law. This is the clear intent of the statute. Had the defendant here not appeared in district court when her cases were called the appeal bonds would have been forfeited and action begun to collect on them. The fact that they had not been signed by the defendant would have been no defense to an action on them. (See Tillson v. State, 29 Kan. 452.) At any rate, any deficiency in these recognizances was cured when the trial court in the exercise of its discretion permitted the defend[51]*51ant to sign them even though more than ten days after the judgment had elapsed.

The action of the trial court in overruling the motion of the city to dismiss the appeals to the district court was correct.

Each one of the offenses was charged to have taken place at a different rooming house in the same city.

At the close of the city’s evidence in district court defendant demurred to it and also filed a motion to dismiss the action and discharge her on the ground that the evidence showed her not to be guilty and that the ordinance as the city construed and applied it to the facts and circumstances was unconstitutional. These motions were overruled. After presentation of her evidence and final submission defendant was found guilty on all three charges. She was sentenced to pay a fine on two of the charges and to confinement in the city jail for thirty days on the other. Hence this appeal.

Defendant argues first, that the undisputed evidence shows affirmatively she is not guilty on any of the charges; second, that when given a reasonable interpretation the ordinance relates only to disturbances in a public place and does not apply to buildings, such as the rooming houses in question; and third, that under all the facts and circumstances her conviction of a violation of the ordinance deprived her of the constitutional freedom of speech, press and worship, contrary to the state and federal constitutions. This argument will require an examination of the evidence in each case. This will be set out now before dealing with any legal questions.

Defendant points out the following undisputed facts common to each case. She was twenty years old. She was an ordained minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses engaged in a house-to-house missionary work. Her method of preaching was to call from door to door and offer people literature explaining the Jehovah’s Witnesses theory of the Bible. The complaining witnesses ordered her not to call from door to door in the buildings under their control. She refused to comply with such commands, claiming that she had the right to call from door to door because the residents of such places had the right each to determine for himself when called upon, and that the complainants, as managers, did not have the right to speak for the residents by issuing a blanket order to appellant not to carry on such door-to-door activity.

As to case No. 36,879, there was testimony that the complaining witness operated a rooming house; that defendant had been at this [52]*52rooming house during the summer before her arrest on various occasions and the witness had asked her to stay away; that on October 31, 1945, defendant came to the rooming house about four o’clock in the evening, entered it and knocked on the door of a room where a young lady was sleeping; that when witness came out in the hall she saw defendant going into the room of a man roomer and in a minute witness heard a Victrola. It should be stated here that apparently defendant used sc Victrola in her ministry when she called on people in their homes. It seems this machine was used to play a record and thereby convey a message of some sort. Witness took defendant by the arm and pulled her out of the room and told her if she did not leave she would call the police; that witness went to call the police and while she was gone defendant went to the room of the young lady who was asleep. The witness further testified that she did not, in the operation of her rooming house, permit women to go into men’s rooms or men into women’s rooms because “I found out you can’t let them do it, because they will go in and go to bed together, so I got onto it and made my veto that I allowed none of them to”; that the man roomer complained to her about the defendant bothering him.

As to case No. 36,880, one witness, the assistant manager of the rooming house, testified, in part, as follows:

“I am the assistant manager of the Conyers Hotel. Our trade is practically all people from the Main Street Hospital next door to us, and relatives who take care of their sick people and, of course, we have some who are ill and are waiting for treatment and want rest until they are ready for them at the hospital. People sleep there day and night.

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196 P.2d 217 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 P.2d 348, 164 Kan. 49, 1947 Kan. LEXIS 371, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-fort-scott-v-arbuckle-kan-1947.