City of Shreveport v. Marx

86 So. 602, 148 La. 31, 1920 La. LEXIS 1665
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 3, 1920
DocketNo. 24167
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 86 So. 602 (City of Shreveport v. Marx) 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. Marx, 86 So. 602, 148 La. 31, 1920 La. LEXIS 1665 (La. 1920).

Opinion

DAWKINS, J.

Defendant was prosecuted in the city court of Shreveport, La., under Act No. 8 of Extra Sess. 1915 and a city ordinance fpr operating a “blind tiger,” and was duly convicted. She appealed to the district court for Caddo parish, the cases were tried de novo and the judgment of the city court affirmed. Having no further right of appeal, defendant applied to us for writs of certiorari and prohibition, alternative writs were issued, and the case is now before us for disposition.

The complaints made against the action of the lower court are presented in nine bills of exception .attached to the’ application, and which we shall dispose of in their order, as follows:

Bill No. 1.

Bill No. 1 was retained to the overruling of a demurrer and motion to quash the charges, filed in the district court, on the ground that [35]*35Act No. 8 of the Extra Session of the Legislature of 1915 has been repealed or superseded by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and the Act of Congress passed pursuant thereto, commonly known- as the Volstead Act (41 Stat. 305).

It is contended by defendant that, inasmuch as Congress, .under the Eighteenth Amendment, has dealt in detail with the manufacture, sale, transportation, importation, and exportation of intoxicating liquors, all state legislation and municipal ordinances passed prior to such legislation have been repealed or superseded by the federal law. In view of the apparent purpose of Congress to deal with the whole subject of prohibition, this would doubtless be true if it were not for the fact that the very amendment itself gives or reserves to the states concurrent power to enforce it by appropriate legislation. It reads:

•‘The manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquor within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation' thereof from, the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is * * * prohibited.
“The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

[1, 2] It follows that unless there be some conflict in the act of Congress -with that of the state, the article! in question itself affords a complete answer to the contention, since state legislation would only have to yield to that of Congress because of the paramount authority of the latter in. enforcing the federal Constitution. The purpose, both of the amendment and the Volstead Act, was and is the enforcing of prohibition, and only such legislation as might tend to defeat that purpose would produce such a conflict; while, on the other hand, any law which had the effect of aiding in its accomplishment could not be said to impede either amendment or statute, although the state statute might provide additional or identical means to the common end; otherwise the clause giving concurrent power to the states to enforce the amendment would be meaningless. It- is true that the Act No. 8 of 1915 was in force when the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act became effective, but nothing therein has been pointed out, nor have we been able to find anything in the state law with which they conflict.

The motion to quash was therefore without merit.

Bill No. 2.

[3, 4] The second bill was reserved to the refusal of the court to quash the charge under the city ordinance, on the ground that the appeal on that phase of the case should have come to this court direct. We see no error in the ruling; but, even if the case under the ordinance had come to us in that way, what we have said with regard to Act No. 8 of 1915, in the above ruling on bill of. exceptions No. 1, would have equal application to the ordinance.

Bill No. 3.

[5] In this bill, defendant objects to the refusal of the district court, after declining to entertain the motion to quash the city charge, to remand that case in order to'permit an appeal to this court. The reason given for the ruling was that the case was before the court on its merits, and that the right of appeal to'the Supreme Court should have been exercised before the case came to trial. We find no error, since the court exercised a proper discretion, and passed upon the only question oij which, in its opinion, it had jurisdiction, i. e., the merits.

Bill No. 4.

[6] In this bill the defendant complains of the action of the court in overruling her motion, asking that the state be required to proceed with the trial, as she contended, in accordance with the act No. 8 of 1915, by producing the search warrant and ascertaining if it had been procured according, to the statute, and, if not, that the witnesses be.not [37]*37permitted to testify. The court gives as its reason for the ruling that, even though the evidence might have been obtained in a manner different from that provided in the statute, this did not prevent its being used by the state when so obtained, and we find no error in this view.

Bill No. 5.

[7] Defendant objected to the admitting in evidence of certain circumstances and acts which took place on April 24th, which had been used by the prosecution on a charge of keeping a blind tiger ■ on that date, and of which she had been acquitted, to support the present charge made as of the 25th of the same month. The court overruled said objection, for the reason that the offense of keeping a blind tiger is, in its nature, a continuing one, and proof of the character offered was admissible, not for the purpose of showing the commission of another crime, but as corroborative of the other evidence tending to establish the charge under investigation.

We find no error.

Bill No. 6.

[8] This bill was reserved to the refusal of the court to continue the case, after the evidence mentioned in bill No. 5 had been admitted, defendant pleading surprise and expressing a desire to summon witnesses to show what took place on April 24th. The continuance was refused, because the court was of the view that, the offense being a continuing one, the defendant should have known that any evidence which might have tended to establish the keeping of a blind tiger would be received, and should have had her witnesses present. We do not think that this was an abuse of the sound discretion allowed a trial court in’ the matter of a continuance, and the ruling will not be disturbed.

Bill No. 7.

Bill No. 7 was reserved to the overruling of an objection to the testimony of a witness as to what occurred at defendant’s place a week prior to the first charge of April 24th. The reasons given by the court were the same as those in the per curiam tó bill No. 5, and we think, sufficient.

Bill No. 8.

[9] The counsel for the state questioned a witness as follows:

“Q. Mr. Hawkins, did Mr. Ludwick make any statement in the presence of defendant?
•‘A. Yes, sir.
“Q. What was it?”

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Bluebook (online)
86 So. 602, 148 La. 31, 1920 La. LEXIS 1665, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-shreveport-v-marx-la-1920.