Garten Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Kansas City

549 P.2d 864, 219 Kan. 620, 1976 Kan. LEXIS 407
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMay 8, 1976
Docket47,949
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 549 P.2d 864 (Garten Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Kansas City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garten Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Kansas City, 549 P.2d 864, 219 Kan. 620, 1976 Kan. LEXIS 407 (kan 1976).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Harman, C.:

This is an appeal from a district court order upholding as valid a city ordinance regulating the hours for consumption of alcoholic beverages in private clubs and prescribing the times during which no person may remain on the premises of these clubs.

On November 12, 1974, the city of Kansas City enacted an ordinance making it unlawful for any private club, “as defined in K. S. A. 1971 Supp. 41-2601 (2) and (3)”, to allow the serving, mixing or consumption of alcoholic liquor on its premises between the hours of 1:30 a. m. and 9:00 a. m on any day other than Sunday or between the hours of 1:30 a. m. and 12:00 o’clock noon on Sundays. The ordinance further made it unlawful for any private club to allow anyone to remain inside the club between the hours of 2:00 a. m. and 9:00 a. m. on any day other than Sunday or between the hours of 2:00 a. m. and 12:00 o’clock noon on Sundays.

Appellant Garten Enterprises, Inc., a corporation licensed as a class B club under our private club act (K. S. A. Chap. 41, Art. 26) filed its petition in the trial court contending that the ordinance was invalid and unreasonable. The parties stipulated there were no factual controversies and submitted the legal issues to the court. The court ruled the ordinance was valid and the matter is now here for review.

Under the heading of “technical defects” appellant challenges the ordinance in three respects. First it says the city’s enactment is impermissibly vague and ambiguous because of its reference to K. S. A. 1971 Supp. 41-2601 (2) and (3) inasmuch as that statute had been amended at the time the ordinance was enacted. A municipal ordinance must be definite and certain so that an average person who reads it with due care can ascertain the particular act or course of conduct it proscribes (56 Am. Jur. 2d, Municipal Corporations, etc., § 367, pp. 394-395). The reference in the ordinance here to the 1971 statute was for the purpose of defining private clubs only, something which the subsequent amendment did not change in any essential way. The amendment had no bearing on appellant’s ability to ascertain that its conduct was governed by the ordinance.

*622 Appellant complains that the title to the ordinance is violative of article 2, section 16 of our state constitution providing that no bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title. This proviso is not applicable to city ordinances (Topeka v. Raynor, 61 Kan. 10, 58 Pac. 557); however, the legislature has established the same proscription with respect to them in K. S. A. 12-3004. The ordinance here is entitled “An Ordinance relating to hours of operation of private clubs. . . Appellant’s argument is that two subjects are covered since the ordinance regulates hours of operation by prohibiting consumption during certain times and it also prescribes times when no one is allowed on the premises.

The purposes of the constitutional section which is the exemplar for 12-3004 have been stated many times. They include the prevention of a matter of legislative merit from being tied to an unworthy matter, the prevention of hodge-podge or log-rolling legislation, the prevention of surreptitious legislation, and the lessening of improper influences which may result from intermixing objects of legislation in the same act which have no relation to each other. This court has held these purposes are fulfilled even though a city ordinance does not include in its title all the details of the provisions of the ordinance. It is sufficient if the title is broad enough to indicate in general terms the provisions of the ordinance (Taneyhill v. Kansas City, 133 Kan. 725, 728-729, 3 P. 2d 645). This principle is elaborated in 5 McQuilJin on Municipal Corporations, § 16.19:

“The title of an ordinance suffices, and the ordinance is valid, where objeots or matters germane to the single general subject expressed by the title are united in the ordinance. Stated somewhat differently, a subject may embrace many objeots; the title may state the subject and the ordinance include the objects. The word ‘subject’ should be given a broad meaning so that all matters having a logical or natural connection are included.
“The title of an ordinance is a label and need only set forth its object, not its produot. It is sufficient if it fairly advises the city council and the public of the real nature and subject matter of the legislation sought to be enaoted, and if the minor features of the ordinance have a reasonable and natural connection with the subject named in the title. The title is not objeotionable unless substantive matter entirely disconnected with the named legislation is included within the folds of the ordinance.” (pp. 158-159.)

Here the provisions of the ordinance relate to the broad subject of the hours when private clubs within the city may be open and in operation. That purpose is adequately expressed in its title in sufficient compliance with K. S. A. 12-3004.

*623 Appellant contends the ordinance is not uniform in its operation but does not specify in what respect the requisite uniformity is lacking. On its face the ordinance affects all private clubs the same. More need not be said on this score.

The trial court ruled the ordinance was not invalid either because of state law preemption of the field or conflict with state law by reason of the private club act (K. S. A. Chap. 41, Art. 26), this in reliance upon our holdings in Leavenworth Club Owners Assn. v. Atchison, 208 Kan. 318, 492 P. 2d 183, 51 A. L. R. 3d 1054, and Blue Star Supper Club, Inc. v. City of Wichita, 208 Kan. 731, 495 P. 2d 524.

The general rule on preemption is that legislative intent to reserve to the state exclusive jurisdiction to regulate an area must be clearly manifested by statute before it can be held that the state has withdrawn from the cities the power to regulate in the field (City of Beloit v. Lamborn, 182 Kan. 288, Syl. para. 2, 321 P. 2d 177; City of Junction City v. Lee, 216 Kan. 495, Syl. para. 9, 532 P. 2d 1292).

K. S. A. 41-2601, et seq., as amended, provides for state licensing and regulation of private clubs. It is part of a comprehensive state plan for the regulation of the manufacture, distribution, possession, sale, transportation and consumption of alcoholic beverages in this state (K. S. A. 41-101, et seq., Kansas liquor control act and K. S. A. 41-2701, et seq., cereal malt beverages). K. S. A. 41-2614 prescribes the hours of operation of private clubs, prohibiting them from allowing the serving, mixing or consumption of alcoholic liquor on their premises between the hours of 3:00 a. m. and 9:00 a. m. on any day other than Sunday and between the hours of 3:00 a. m. and 12:00 o’clock noon on Sundays.

K. S. A. 41-208 provides that the power to regulate all phases of the control of the manufacture, distribution, sale, possession, transportation and traffic in alcoholic liquor and the manufacture of beer regardless of alcoholic content, except as specifically delegated in the act, is vested exclusively in the state. It further- provides:

“. . .

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Bluebook (online)
549 P.2d 864, 219 Kan. 620, 1976 Kan. LEXIS 407, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garten-enterprises-inc-v-city-of-kansas-city-kan-1976.