Dinuzzo v. State

123 N.W. 309, 85 Neb. 351, 1909 Neb. LEXIS 354
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 9, 1909
DocketNo. 16,330
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 123 N.W. 309 (Dinuzzo v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dinuzzo v. State, 123 N.W. 309, 85 Neb. 351, 1909 Neb. LEXIS 354 (Neb. 1909).

Opinion

Rose, J.

Tlie question for determination in this case is the validity of the daylight saloon act. In a prosecution by the [352]*352state in the district court for Douglas county, defendant Frank Dinuzzo, a licensed saloon-keeper in the city of Omaha, Avas convicted of selling and giving aAvay malt and spirituous liquors after 8 o’clock P. M., July 10, 1909, in violation of the act mentioned. For that offense he was sentenced to pay a fine of $100, and he now presents the record of his conviction for review by a petition in error.

Defendant assails the sentence of the trial court on the sole ground that the daylight saloon laAV under which he was convicted is unconstitutional and void. Before that act was passed the general statutes regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors, namely, chapter 50, Comp. St. 1907, contained the following: “Section 14. Every person avIio shall sell or give away any malt, spirituous, and vinous liquors on the day of any general or special election, or at any time during the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall forfeit and pay for every such offense, the sum of one hundred dollars.” This section was amended at the last session of the legislature. The amendment contains the daylight saloon act, and reads as folloAvs: “Every person who shall sell or give away any malt, spirituous or vinous liquors or any intoxicating drinks on the day of any general, special or primary election, or at any time during the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, or at any time upon any week day, after the hour of eight o’clock P. M. and before the hour of seven o’clock A. M. of the following day shall forfeit and pay for every such offense, the sum of one hundred dollars, and his license shall be forfeited and canceled by the board granting the same, forthwith, whether such1 person convicted shall appeal therefrom or not.” Laws 1909, ch. 82; Comp. St. 1909, ch. 50, sec. 14.

Defendant admitted by demurrer the truth of the charge that he sold and gave away malt and spirituous liquors in violation of the amendment quoted, but insists the amendatory act is void, and for that reason prays for a reversal of the judgment imposing the fine. The validity of the act is challenged on the ground it contravenes the [353]*353constitutional provision that “no bill shall contain more than one subject, and the same shall be clearly expressed in its title.” Const., art. Ill, sec. 11. The title of the amendatory act is as follows: “An act to amend section 14, chapter 50, Compiled Statutes of the state of Nebraska for the year 1907, and to repeal said original section.” Laws 1909, ch. 82. Defendant insists this title confines the new legislation to the subject of the original section, which, according to his conception thereof, is limited to sales of intoxicating liquors on days of election and on Sundays, and that the amendment prohibiting sales after 8 o’clock P. M. on other days is a different subject within the meaning of the constitution. The fallacy of this argument is in the assumption that the subject 'of the original section is limited to sales on days of election and on Sundays. Section 14 in its original form was part of the general statute regulating “the license and sale of malt, spirituous and vinous liquors.” ' That law was passed in 1881, and with feAv changes has since been -in force. The subject of section 14 must be determined by its relation to the entire statute as well as by the import of its own provisions. Chapter 50, Comp. St. 1907, contains no limitation on the time of giving aAvay intoxicating liquors or of making sales thereof, except that found in section 14, which, as originally enacted, prohibited gifts and sales on days of election and on Sundays. The only purpose of section 14 was to impose that limitation and make it effective. To that extent it qualified and limited other provisions. It contained no legislation on any other subject, and no other restriction of a similar nature can be found anywhere in the statute in which it was inserted. Other sections authorized licenses and sales, but restrictions as to time of sales are found alone in section 14. By confining the limitation therein to days of election and Sundays the lawmakers did not exhaust their power to legislate on the time of closing saloons. The daylight saloon act restricts still further the time of trafficking in [354]*354intoxicating liquors and that subject is certainly germane to the original section. Being the only provision limiting the time of making sales, it was natural for the lawmakers to amend it when extending the restrictions. It was evidently selected for amendment because it was the section which placed limitations on the time of operating saloons. Considered in this light the amendment is not surreptitious legislation. Its passage in its present form and its effect on other laAvs are not evils AAddch the constitutional provision vvas intended to avert. Defendant’s interpretation of the subject of the original section cannot be adopted. Such a doctrine Avould interfere with legislative amendments to an extent never contemplated by the framers of the constitution or by the people who adopted it.

The daylight saloon law is also attacked on the ground it.violates the constitutional provision that “no law shall be amended unless the neAV act contains the section or sections so amended, and the section or’ sections so amended shall be repealed.” Const., art. Ill, sec. 11. In pointing-out statutes thus amended defendant refers to the following enactment: “The corporate authorities of all cities and villages shall have power to license, regulate and prohibit the selling or giving away of any intoxicating, malt, spirituous and vinous, mixed or fermented liquors within the limits of such city or village.” Comp. St. 1907, ch. 50, sec. 25. Reference is also made to a number of city charters Avhich confer upon cities power to regulate the traffic in intoxicating liquors Avithout restriction as to the time of making sales. Other provisions are also included in defendant’s list of statutes amended by, but not contained in, the daylight saloon law or repealed by it. He argues that the act, though purporting on its face to amend no legislative enactment except section 14, ch. 50, Comp. St. 1907, in fact amends also section 25 of the same chapter, and other statutory proAdsions, and consequently passes the bounds of the constitutional limitation quoted. In discussing the effect of the amendment on the power delegated to cities and county boards, he said in his argument: [355]*355“By this act the power conferred has been partially taken away from the various corporate authorities. It is necessary now to read into section 25 of chapter 50 the amendment known as the daylight saloon bill. It is now necessary to say, so far as section 25 is concerned, that the corporate authorities of all cities and villages shall have power to regulate and prohibit only between the hours of 7 in the morning and 8 in the evening, because by the act in question there is an absolute prohibition of all sales between 8 P. M. and 7 A. M. of every week day. It is also necessary to read into the charter of every city and village in the state that the power to regulate and prohibit is limited to the hours between 7 A. M. and 8 P-. M. of every week day. It is also necessary to read this amendment into the power granted county commissioners with reference to the regulation and prohibition of the sale of liquors within their respective jurisdictions.”

It is the duty of the court to consider as a whole and harmonize, if possible, all valid legislation on the subject of intoxicating liquors.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
123 N.W. 309, 85 Neb. 351, 1909 Neb. LEXIS 354, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dinuzzo-v-state-neb-1909.