City of Shreveport v. Maroun

64 So. 388, 134 La. 490, 1914 La. LEXIS 1610
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 5, 1914
DocketNo. 19,936
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 64 So. 388 (City of Shreveport v. Maroun) 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 Shreveport v. Maroun, 64 So. 388, 134 La. 490, 1914 La. LEXIS 1610 (La. 1914).

Opinions

SOMMER VILLE, J.

Defendant was charged with and found guilty of maintaining a public nuisance in the city of Shreveport, by keeping a “blind tiger,” and he appeals.

There are three bills of exceptions found in the record, all to the same effect, and they will be considered together.

Defendant was charged, April 17, 1913, with maintaining a public nuisance by keeping a “blind tiger” on the 24th day of February, 1913, contrary to the ordinance of the city of Shreveport, specially ordinance No. 5, which is made part of the bills of exceptions, and it is found in the record.

The first objection to the charge was that it was duplicitous; but this objection has been abandoned.

Second. That said ordinance No. 5 is illegal and of no effect, for the reason that it is ultra vires of the powers of the council; and that it is unconstitutional, null, and void, in that (a) it attempts to create an offense which the city council had no right to do; (b) that in it the council attempts to create rules of evidence, which is beyond its power and authority.

The first section of the ordinance declares:

“That what is commonly known as a ‘blind tiger’ within the limits of the city of Shreveport, Louisiana, is hereby declared to be a public nuisance.”

The following sections proceed with provisions for the abating of said public nuisances.

The council of the city of Shreveport did not attempt, under ordinance No. 5, to create an offense; it simply directs that a certain public nuisance shall be abated; and it provides for a penalty to be imposed by the courts tipon the person maintaining said nuisance.

[1] In the early part of 1908 the police jury of the parish of Caddo, in accordance with a vote taken by the people on the subject, adopted an ordinance prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in drinking houses and shops within the limits of the parish of Cad-do, on and after the 1st day of January, 1909. That ordinance has been before us, and declared to be legal. Hagens et al. v. Police Jury of Caddo Parish, 121 La. 634, 46 South. 676. The city of Shreveport, being located in the parish of Caddo, was and is in prohibition territory; and no one can there lawfully engage in the sale of intoxicating liquors in drinking houses and shops.

[2, 3] In line with the ordinance of the police jury, the common council of the city of Shreveport passed ordinance No. 5, now under consideration, and therein undertook to define a “blind tiger”; but this definition was tautological, and therefore unnecessary. Crowley v. Ellsworth, 114 La. 308, 38 South. 199, 69 L. R. A. 276, 108 Am. St. Rep. 353. The term is known and recognized generally. It is found in the Standard Dictionary and in Words and Phrases. The Standard Dictionary defines a “blind tiger” to be a place where intoxicants are sold on the sly; and “sly” means artfully, dexterous in doing things secretly; cunning in evading notice of detection.

[4, 5] “Blind tigers” have been declared to be public nuisances affecting the whole community, and, as such, they may be abated. Town of Ruston v. Fountain, 118 La. 53, 42 South. 644; Legg v. Anderson, 116 Ga. 401, 42 S. E. 720; Lofton v. Collins, 117 Ga. 434, 43 S. E. 708, 61 L. R. A. 150; Rush v. Commonwealth (Ky.) 47 S. W. 586.

It is a well-recognized fact that, after the sale of intoxicating liquors has been prohibited, either by special act or by vote of the people, all sorts of contrivances are resorted to to evade the operation of the law; and the places selling intoxicating liquors under these conditions are known as “blind tigers”; they are devices by which a liquor seller seeks to ply his vocation, and at- the same time to conceal his criminal agency in the selling.

There can be no question of the right of [495]*495the people of Caddo parish to decide that intoxicating liquors cannot be sold in that parish. Town of Ruston v. Fountain, 118 La. 53, 42 South. 644; Hagens v. Police Jury of Caddo (Parish, 121 La. 634, 46 South. 676.

The Supreme Court, in Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, 8 Sup. Ct. 273, 31 L. Ed. 205, held that a statute of Kansas which prohibits the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in that state is valid, and that the destruction, in the exercise of the police power of the state, of property used, in violation of law, in maintaining a public nuisance is not a taking of property for public use, and does not deprive the owner of it without due process of law. Such person is a violator of the law, and not an innocent owner, who is protected in his rights by the Constitution of the United States.

“The power which the states have of prohibiting such use by individuals of their property as will be prejudicial to the health, the morals, or the safety of the public, is not, and, consistently with the existence and safety of organized society, cannot be, burdened with the condition that the state must compensate such individual owners for pecuniary losses they may sustain, by reason of their not being permitted, by a noxious use of their property, to inflict injury upon the community.”

In the case of Purity Extract & Tonic. Co. v. Lynch, 226 U. S. 192, 33 Sup. Ct. 44, 57 L. Ed. 184, the court say:

“It is also well established that, when a state exerting its recognized authority undertakes to suppress what it is free to regard as a public evil, it may adopt such measures having reasonable relation to that end as it may deem necessary in order to make its action effective.”

And in that case, the court held that the state Legislature of Mississippi had the right to prevent the sale of malt liquors, saying:

“That the opinion is extensively held that a general prohibition of the sale of malt liquors, whether intoxicating or not, is a necessary means to the suppression of trade in intoxicants sufficiently appears from the legislation of other states and the decisions of the courts in its construction.” (Citing many authorities to that effect.)

In the case of Kennedy v. Phelps, Street Commissioner of New Orleans, 10 La. Ann. 227, we say that:

“The power to abate nuisances is a portion of police authority, necessarily vested in the corporation of all populous towns.”

' And we there. cite many authorities in support of that proposition. See, also, Mayor v. Gerspach, 33 La. Ann. 1011. We there say:

“We think the right exists in the council of a municipal corporation to determine what, in its nature and use, it deems a nuisance, and to direct its removal or discontinuance under the penalties which it is, by legislative authority, authorized to impose or inflict.”

See, also, State v. Heidenhain, 42 La. Ann. 483, 7 South. 621, 21 Am. St. Rep. 388, involving the right of the council of the city of New Orleans to prohibit smoking on street ears. We there say:

“The authority to abate nuisances is a part of the police power vested in all large and populous cities. To determine what is a nuisance is a question of fact.

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City of Shreveport v. Maroun
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Bluebook (online)
64 So. 388, 134 La. 490, 1914 La. LEXIS 1610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-shreveport-v-maroun-la-1914.