Edis v. Butler

8 Ohio N.P. 183
CourtCuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1900
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Ohio N.P. 183 (Edis v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edis v. Butler, 8 Ohio N.P. 183 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1900).

Opinion

FORD, J.

This is an action in habeas corpus, brought by A. Edis against R. A. Butler, the superintendent of the Cleveland workhouse, charging in his petition, that he is unlawfully detained by the said superintendent; that the ordinance upon which the affidavit was issued, is absolutely void and unconstitutional and against the laws of the state of Ohio; that the affidavit upon which the warrant was issued, is void because it charges no offense against the laws of the state of Ohio; and that the mittimus is insufficient.

[184]*184The return of the defendant states that he received the said Edis into his charge and custody from the hands of the marshall of ihe village of Collin-wood by virtue of a sentence and commitment of the mayor of said village.

The mittimus sets forth that the relator was convicted of the violation of the village ordinance against keeping open a place where intoxicating liquors are sold at retail on Sunday.

The ordinance under which the conviction was had, is as follows:

“It shall be unlawful for any person or persons, the owner or owners, keeper or keepers, agent or agents, of any saloon, ale, beer or porter house or other place within the limits of the village of Collinwood, where intoxicating liquors are sold at retail for any purpose or in any quantity, otherwise than upon the prescription issued in good faith by a physician in active practice, or for exclusively known mechanical, pharmaceutical or sacramental purposes, to cause, permit or allow such saloon, ale, beer or porter house or other place, to be or remain open on the first pay of the week, commonly called' Sunday.
“The provisions of this ordinance shall not apply to, or, in any way affect the manufacture of intoxicating liquors from the raw material,or the sale thereof at the manufactory by the manufacturer of the same in quantities of one gallon or more at one time.”

The relator is detained by virtue of the judgment of a court possessing jurisdiction of offenses of the Rind charged. Unless the statute or ordinance under which the relator was con victed, is unconstitutional or void for some reason, and the conviction thereunder for that reason void, the relator is not entitled to be discharged upon a petition in habeas corpus.

The ordinance is authorized by section 4364-20 of the Revised Statutes of Ohio, which is section 11 of the Dow law so called, and is as follows:

“That the sale of intoxicating liquors, whether distilled, malt or vinous, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, except by a regular druggist on the written prescription of a regular practicing physician for medical purposes only, is hereby declared to be unlawful, and all places where such intoxicating liquors are on other days sold or exposed for sale, except regular drug stores, shall on that day be closed, and whoever makes any such sale, or allows any such place to be open or remain open on that day. shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, and not less than twenty-five dollars, and be imprisoned in the county jail or city prison not' less than ten days and not exceeding thirty days. In regular hotels and eating houses, the word ‘place’ herein used shall be held to mean the room or part-of room where such liquors are usually sold or exposed for sale, and the keeping of such room or part of room securely dosed shall be held, as to such hotels and eating houses, as a closing of the place within the meaning of this, act. And any municipal corporation shall have full power to regulate, restrain and prohibit ale, beer and porter houses, and other places where intoxicating liquors are sold at retail for any purpose or in any quautity other than is provided for in section,!? of this act, as amended March 21, 1887. But if any municipal corporation shall prohibit ale, beer and porter houses, or other places where intoxicating liquors are sold within the limits of such corporation, a ratable proportion of the tax paid by the proprietors thereof for the unexpired portion of the year shall be returned to such proprietors.”

Section 4364-16 Rev. Stat., which is-section 8 of the Dow law, reads as follows:

“The phrase ‘trafficking in intoxicating liquors,’ as used in this act, means the buying or procuring and selling of intoxicating liquors otherwise than upon prescription issued in good faith by reputable physicians in active practice, or for exclusively known mechanical, pharmaceutical or sacramental purposes; but such phrase does not include the manufacture of intoxicating liquors from the raw material, and the sale thereof at the manufactory, by the manufacturer of the same in quantitesof one gallon or more at any one time.”

From the reading of the former part of section 4364-20, it is apparent that the legislature felt that the good order and good morals of the community required' that some restraint should be put upon-the sale of liquors and the keeping open-of the places of such sale upon the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday; and to that end, the first portion of the said section was passed, providing against the sale and against the-keeping open of places on Sunday and broadly excepting from the operation of ihe statute drug-stores and druggists.

From the passage of the latter part of that section, it is apparent that the legislature felt that while the former part of this section-applied to the conditions generally throughout the state, that there were communities or municipalities that in the exercise of their local.government might desire a different condition and might desire a more sweeping legislation in regard to the conduct of saloons and the sale of liquors, and, to that end provided that such places might, by ordinance, be regulated, restrained, or totally prohibited.

For the purpose of showing the an[185]*185thority under which the ordinance in question was passed, this latter part of section 11 of the Dow law and section 8 of the Dow law may be re-constructed to read as follows:

“Any municipal corporation shall have full power to keep closed on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, all ale, beer and porter houses, and other places, including drug-stores and where intoxicating liquors are sold at retail for any purpose or in any quantity other than places where intoxicating liquors are sold upon prescription issued in good faith by reputable physicians in active pratice, or places where intoxicating liquors are sold for exlcusively known mechanical, pharmaceutical or sacramental purposes, and places where intoxicating liquors are manufactured from the raw material.”

It would seem that it was the intention of the legislature, by the latter part of this section, to give to municipalities and the amplest power to control the sale of liquors and the places where the same are sold, irrespective of the purpose for which it was sold, or the quantity in which it was sold, or the persons by whom it was sold, whether druggists or otherwise, except in so far as the druggist or other person might be relieved by the phraseology in section 8, which reads:

“Otherwise than upon prescription issued in good faith by reputable physicians in active practice, or for exclusively known mechanical, pharmaceutical cr saoramental purposes.”

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

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
8 Ohio N.P. 183, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edis-v-butler-ohctcomplcuyaho-1900.