Driggs v. State

52 Ohio St. (N.S.) 37
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 16, 1894
StatusPublished

This text of 52 Ohio St. (N.S.) 37 (Driggs v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Driggs v. State, 52 Ohio St. (N.S.) 37 (Ohio 1894).

Opinion

Dickman, C. J.

The first question that claims our consideration is, whether the act of the gen-, eral assembly under which the defendant below was indicted is unconstitutional and void. The act, it is contended, is of a general nature without having a uniform operation throughout the state, and is therefore in conflict with section 26, article II of the constitution of Ohio. That the act is ■ general in its nature within the meaning of the constitution, and subject to the constitutional requirement as to uniformity of operation, will be apparent, we think, upon examination. It is a law of general interest to all the inhabitants of this state, and its penal sanctions extend to all persons within the borders of the state who violate its provisions. Its subject matter is of a general nature, inasmuch as it concerns the public at large that the evils resulting from the sale of intoxicating liquors within the limits of the state should be suppressed. And section 18 of the schedule of the constitution, in ordaining that no license to traffic in intoxicating liquors shall hereafter be granted in this state, and that the general assembly “may by law provide against the evils resulting therefrom, ” virtually declares that the [50]*50regulation of such traffic is one of a general nature and pertains to the public welfare.

It is urged, however, that while the law is thus general and not special in its character, it does not operate uniformly throughout the state, within the requirements of the constitution. The act contains two sections. One section imposes a penalty for selling or giving away intoxicating liquors, at any placé within one and one-half miles outside the boundary line of the lands occupied by any home for disabled volunteer soldiers established by the government of the United States; and one imposes the same penalty for committing the same offense at any place within one mile outside of the boundary line of' the lands occupied by any home for disabled volunteer soldiers established by the state of Ohio. Both sections are in pari materia, so far as they relate to the selling or giving away of intoxicating liquors near homes for disabled volunteer soldiers; but while the first section refers to national military homes, the second has reference to soldiers’ homes established by the state of Ohio.

It will be conceded that if the act embraced only the first section relating to national military homes, it would not be open to the constitutional objection of not being uniform in its operation throughout the state. In Heck v. The State, 44 Ohio St., 536, it was held, that the clause “whoever sells intoxicating liquors within two miles of a place where an agricultural fair is being held •x * -x siian he fined,” etc., contained in section 6946, of the Revised Statutes, as amended May 2, 1885, is not in conflict with any provision of the constitution, and is a valid law. . “A law is general and uniform,” say the court, “that applies to all [51]*51persons and things coming within its provisions throughout the state. Its uniformity consists in the fact that no person or thing, of the description of any person or thing affected by it, is exempt from its operation.” The rule as to uniformity of operation requires that the law; shall have a uniform operation upon the persons or things of any class upon whom or which it purports to take effect; that it shall bear equally in its burdens and benefits upon persons and things standing in the same category. Smith v. Judge, 17 Cal., 554; French v. Teschemaker, 24 Cal., 544; Brooks v. Hyde, 37 Cal., 375.

But it is urged in behalf of the plaintiff in error that the homes for disabled volunteer soldiers contemplated in the statute, together constitute one class of such common characteristics, that the same penalty cannot be enforced against selling or giving away intoxicating liquors at a different distance from the national and Ohio soldiers’ homes respectively, without depriving the law, which is general in its nature, of a uniform operation, and giving to it a distinct, special and unlike application to the several members of the class. In view of the object and purpose of the statute, it is claimed that there is not a sufficient dissimilarity between such homes, as to call for and demand a separate and different statutory provision, defining and punishing sales or gifts of intoxicating liquors within a prescribed distance of their boundaries.

The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers at Dayton, in Ohio, referred to in the indictment of the plaintiff in error, was established by the government of the United States, under .sundry acts of congress now embodied in sections [52]*524825 to 4837, inclusive, of the Consolidated and Revised' Statutes of the United States (1878). Under those sections it is provided that there shall be a board of twelve managers of the National Home, of which the' president, secretary of war, and'chief justice shall be members, who are to have perpetual succession, with powers to take hold, and convey real and personal property, establish a common seal, to sue and be sued in courts of . law and equity, to make by-laws, rules and regulations, not inconsistent with law, for carrying on the business and government of the home, and to affix penalties thereto. The persons entitled to the benefits of the home, and who may be admitted thereto, are all officers and soldiers who-served in the late war for the suppression of the rebellion, and the volunteer soldiers and sailors of the war of eighteen hundred and twelve, and of the Mexican war, and not provided for by existing laws, who have been or may be disabled by wounds received or .sickness contracted in the line of their duty. All inmates of the National Home -are made subject to the rules and articles of war, and in the same manner as if they were in the army.

Provision is made for the purchase of sites for homes, and for the erection of buildings. By section 4830, “The board of managers shall have authority to procure from time to time,'at suitable places, sites for military homes for all persons serving in the army of the United States at any time in' the war of the rebellion, not otherwise provided for, who have been or may be disqualified for procuring their own support, by reason of wounds received or- sickness contracted while in the line of their duty during the rebellion; and to [53]*53have the necessary buildings erected, having due regard to the health of locality, facility of. access, and capacity to accommodate the persons entitled to the. benefits thereof. ”

By section 1 of an act to provide for the establishment and maintenance of a.home for disabled and indigent ex-soldiers, sailors and marines of Ohio, passed April 30; 1886 (83 Ohio Laws, 107), it is enacted: “That there shall be established in this state an institution under the name of ‘The Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home.”.’ By section 2 of the act, it.is enacted: “All honorably discharged soldiers, sailors and marines, who have 'served the United States government in any of its wars, and who are citizens of Ohio at. the date of the passage of.

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Bluebook (online)
52 Ohio St. (N.S.) 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/driggs-v-state-ohio-1894.