City of Yankton v. Douglass

66 N.W. 923, 8 S.D. 440, 1896 S.D. LEXIS 43
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedApril 9, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 66 N.W. 923 (City of Yankton v. Douglass) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota 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 Yankton v. Douglass, 66 N.W. 923, 8 S.D. 440, 1896 S.D. LEXIS 43 (S.D. 1896).

Opinions

Corson, P. J.

Defendant was convicted, in justice court, for violating a city ordinance. Upon appeal to the circuit court, the action was tried anew, resulting in conviction and judgment, against him. He brings the case hqre for review upon writ of error.

It is contended that the -facts stated in the complaint do not constitute an offense under the ordinance alleged to have [442]*442been violated. Omitting the title, such complaint is as follows: “August Seibert, being by me duly sworn, on oath complains and charges that the defendant, Thomas Douglass, at the said city and county of Yankton, on the 17th day of September, A. D. 1893, with force and arms then and there did keep and maintain a tippling shop, a place where intoxicating liquors were sold to be used as a beverage, within the limits of the city of Yankton, state of South Dakota, against the peace and dignity of the said city of Yankton, and contrary to the form of the ordinance in such case made and provided; and prays that the said Thomas Douglass may be arrested and dealt with according to law.” The ordinance provides “that any person who, within the limits of this city, shall keep or maintain a tippling shop, or place where intoxicating liquors are sold to be used as a beverage, or shall sell any intoxicating liquors in any such tippling shop or place, shall upon conviction be fined in any sum not less than thirty (30) dollars, nor more than one hundred (100) dollars, and in addition thereto maybe imprisoned not to exceed thirty days. ” Under a special charter the city of Yankton has power “to restrain, prohibit and suppress tippling shops, billiard tables, ten pin alleys, houses of prostitution and other disorderly houses and practices, games and gambling houses, desecration of the Sabbath, commonly called Sunday, and all kinds of indecencies.” Such being its conceded authority, the ordinance must be construed with reference thereto. It cannot include what is not included in the charter. Under it the city may restrain, prohibit, and suppress tippling shops, but it is not authorized to restrain, prohibit or suppress the mere sale of intoxicating liquors. The term “tippling shop” has a well-defined legal meaning. It is a place in which liquors are sold in drams, or small quantities, and where men are accustomed to tipple. To tipple is to drink spiritous or strong drink habitually. Webst. Diet. A tippling shop is a building or room wherein intoxicating liquors are habitually sold to be drank upon the premises. Bish." St. [443]*443Crimes, § 1065; Black, Intox. Liq. § 20; And. Law Diet.; City of Emporia v. Volmer, 12 Kan. 622. We have found no well-considered definition of the term which does not include the element of drinking upon the premises. In so far as the ordinance attempts to prohibit the mere sale of intoxicating liquors, or the keeping of a place wherein such liquors are sold to be drank as a beverage elsewhere, we think it exceeds the authority of the charter, and is to that extent invalid. The clause, ‘ ‘a place where intoxicating liquors were sold to be used as a beverage, ” inserted in the complaint, not being authorized by the charter, and therefore not legally a part of the ordinance, cannot properly constitute a part of the complaint, and it will be treated as surplusage and disregarded. Without this allegation in the complaint, it is clearly sufficient. The term, “did keep and maintain a tippling shop,” sufficiently defines the offense charged, as the term “tippling shop,” as we have seen, has a well-understood and a well-defined meaning. Mr. Bishop, in his work on Statutory Crimes (Sec. 1065), speaking of the indictment in this class of cases, says: “The indictment is only required to charge, in the general words of the statute, if so its terms are duly covered, that, at a specified time and place, the defendant did keep a drinking house and tippling shop. ” The words “drinking house” add nothing to the charge, as a tippling shop includes a drinking house. In City of Emporia v. Volmer, 12 Kan. 622, a similar complaint was held good by the supreme court of Kansas.

It is further contended that the police justice erred in refusing to allow the defendant to challenge certain jurors peremptorily who were impaneled to try the case. But we do not deem it necessary to consider that question, for the reason that it is not properly before us. An appeal was taken from the justice court to the circuit court upon questions of both law and fact. In such cases no statement is made, as the case is tried anew in the circuit court. The error, if any was committed, could not have been reviewed by the circuit court and cannot [444]*444be reviewed by this court on writ of error. The proceedings to be taken in the two classes of appeals from a justice court are fully pointed out by Secs. 6129, 6131, 6136, 6177, 6178, Comp. Laws. See Coughran v. Wilson (S. D.) 63 N. W. 774.

It is also urged, as reversible errror, that the defendant was prejudiced by the remarks of counsel for the city in presence of the jury. The remarks to which our attention was first called were improper, but evidently made inadvertently, without any improper motive. The court, immediately upon its attention being called to the matter instructed the jury to disregard the remarks. This, we think, cured the error. The second remarks objected to seem only to have been the conclusion or opinion of counsel as to the result of the evidence. We discover no error in these remarks. The counsel for appellant further contends that, while the city counsel has conferred upon it power to “restrain, prohibit and suppress tippling shops,” it did not possess the power or authority to pass an ordinance imposing a penalty of fine and imprisonment upon one who should violate the ordinance, and that so much of the ordinance therefore, as prescribes such a penalty is unauthorized and void. In other words, he contends that power ‘‘to restrain, prohibit and suppress” does not include the power to punish by fine and imprisonment, but only the power to pass an ordinance restraining, prohibiting or suppressing the “tippling shops” in some manner that will accomplish that purpose. And the counsel cite Incorporated Town of Nevada v. Hutchins (Iowa) 13 N. W. 634; City of Chariton v. Barber, (Iowa) 6 N. W. 528; In re Lee Tong 18 Fed. 253—which seem to support his contention. But it is insisted, on the part of the city, that the powers conferred upon the Yankton city council by its charter are unusually broad and comprehensive, and that, while the decisions referred to were proper under the charters the courts had under consideration, they are not applicable to the charter now under consideration in the case at bar. There is much force in these suggestions. The city charter of Yankton does seem to confer up[445]*445on the city council of that city very large powers. The sections of the charter of the city of Yankton to which onr attention has been called read as follows: Sec. 82: “When by this act, the power is conferred upon the mayor and council to do and perform any act or thing, and the manner of exercising the same is not specifically pointed out the mayor and council may provide by ordinance the details necessary for the full exercise of such power.” Sec. 13: “The mayor and council of the city of Yankton shall have the care, management and control of the city, and its property and finances, and shall have power to enact and ordain, any and all ordinances, not repugnant to the organic act, and the laws of this territory, and such ordinances to alter, modify and repeal.” Sec.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Sioux Falls v. Peterson
25 N.W.2d 556 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1946)
City of Fargo v. Glaser
244 N.W. 905 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1932)
City of Yankton v. Douglass
67 N.W. 630 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1896)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 N.W. 923, 8 S.D. 440, 1896 S.D. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-yankton-v-douglass-sd-1896.