Commonwealth v. Watts

2 S.W. 123, 84 Ky. 537, 1886 Ky. LEXIS 94
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedDecember 7, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2 S.W. 123 (Commonwealth v. Watts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Watts, 2 S.W. 123, 84 Ky. 537, 1886 Ky. LEXIS 94 (Ky. Ct. App. 1886).

Opinion

■JUDGE LEWIS

DELIVERED THE OPINION OP THE COURT.

August 29, 1885, the judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court issued a warrant directed to the proper ■officer commanding him to enter and to search a house therein described for the detection of certain gaming tables and implements used for gambling, also described, and to seize and bring the same, and likewise the bodies of Wetzel and Jenkins, before him, to be disposed of and dealt .with according to law. The sheriff, to whom the warrant was delivered, made a return thereon that he had executed it by arresting Wetzel, who gave bond for his appearance before said judge, but found no gambling implements of .any kind described in the warrant. Afterwards, the following order was made: “At a court held for the Louisville Law and Equity Court, the defendant Wetzel, * * * appeared at the bar of this court in pursuance to his recognizance,- and the court being non-advised, * * * orders that the defendant Wetzel be held -to appear before the next September .term of the Jefferson Circuit Court, on the 7th day of September, 1885, upon said charge of setting up, keeping and exhibiting a keno bank and gaming table, and that he be allowed to give bail in the sum of $600 for his appearance in said court at said time, and to be of good behavior for the period of one year from this date.” And thereupon Wetzel executed the bond ^ mentioned and described in the order. September 9, an indictment was found against him in the Jefferson Circuit Court for the offense of setting up, keeping and exhibiting a keno bank, and on the same day an ■order of that court was entered forfeiting the bail bond [540]*540executed by him before the judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court, and for a summons.to issue against him. But two days thereafter he entered his appearance and filed a response to the summons, in which he set up as a defense that the judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court had no authority to issue the warrant for either a search to detect gaming tables or for his arrest ; nor jurisdiction to either investigate the charge or to hold him over, and that consequently the bond was void. And the circuit court having overruled the demurrer to the response, and dismissed'the proceeding on the forfeited bail bond, the Commonwealth prosecutes this appeal.

If the judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court had the authority exercised by him in this case, it existed in virtue of sections 22 and 23, article 1, chapter 47, General Statutes, which are as follows:

“ § 22. A judge or justice of the peace may, by his warrant, cause any house or building to be searched, by night or by day, for the detection of gaming tables; and if admission be not given on demand made, the officer, or other person in charge of the warrant, shall force an entrance, seize the table and all other implements used therewith, and all money or other things staked or exhibited thereon, and arrest the keeper thereof.

“ 23. Any setter-up or keeper of a gaming table may be required, by a judge or justice of the peace, to give security in six hundred dollars for his appearance at the next circuit court of the county to answer the charge, and to be of good behavior for one year; and on failure, shall be committed to prison until after the [541]*541next term of court, or until the security is given, and if, after giving the security, he shall, within one year, keep or permit any such table to be used, it shall be deemed a breach of his recognizance.”

If the two sections quoted are valid and in force, it is clear that the judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court has authority to issue the warrant provided for in section 22; for the term “a judge,” which is the equivalent of “any judge,” comprehends an entire class, and can not, without distorting its meaning, be restricted in its application to judges of county, city and police courts, who, together with mayors, chairmen of trustees of towns, and justices of the peace, are called in the Criminal Code “magistrates,” and alone empowered thereby to issue warrants of arrest.

To construe section 22 so as to withhold authority to issue the warrant therein' provided for from the judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court, necessarily, and in defiance of the explicit language used, excludes as well judges of the circuit, criminal and common pleas courts.

Assuming, as we think must be done, that the judge in this case had, under section 22, authority to issue the warrant, it consistently and logically follows that the officer having appellee under arrest, in obedience to the warrant, was authorized to bring him before the judge to be dealt with as provided in section 23, which involved' the legal necessity of an examination of the charge. For it would not be a reasonable supposition that the Legislature intended to empower a judge to require a person arrested for setting up and keeping a gaming table to give security for his appearance at the [542]*542circuit court, and to be of good behavior for one year, without a previous examination a>i the charge. • But be that as it may, section 23 does, in terms, authorize a judge or justice of the peace to require and to take such bonds, and, in our opinion, the judge who issued the warrant and took the bond in this case, is not excepted from, but included by, the terms of the statute.

Section 11, article 13, of the Constitution, does not prohibit, but impliedly recognizes the general power of the Legislature to enact laws authorizing “seizures and searches,” it being, however, therein provided “that the people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from imreasonable seizures, and searches, and that no warrant to search any place, or to seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing them as nearly as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation.” And this power has been exercised by the Legislature from the beginning, and decided by this court to clearly exist. (Reed v. Rice, 2 J. J. M., 46.)

But it was not necessary to the validity of section 22' for it to contain a recital of the conditions and restrictions'of the Constitution just quoted ; for, being enacted subject thereto, its enforcement of necessity must be in harmony therewith, whether so expressly provided in the statute itself or not.

In this case the warrant was in fact issued upon probable cause, supported by oath, and the place to be searched and the persons and things to be seized were described with reasonable certainty; and thus it was demonstrated that the statute can be properly and effectually enforced, and the requirements of the Con[543]*543stitution at the same time complied with. There could, it seems to us, be no better test of the validity of a statute.

The principal question in this case is, whether sections 22 and 23 we are considering have been repealed by the act adopting the present Criminal Code, passed subsequent to the General Statutes.

The first and third sections of that act are as follows:

■ “§1. That the provisions of this act shall regulate the proceedings in all prosecutions and penal actions in all the courts of this Commonwealth, from and after the first day of January, 1877, and shall be known as ‘The Code of Practice in Criminal Cases.’

“§3. That all laws coming within the purview of this act shall become repealed when this act goes into effect, except as provided in the preceding (third) section.”

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Bluebook (online)
2 S.W. 123, 84 Ky. 537, 1886 Ky. LEXIS 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-watts-kyctapp-1886.