Gray v. Commonwealth

188 S.W. 354, 171 Ky. 269, 1916 Ky. LEXIS 331
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedSeptember 29, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 188 S.W. 354 (Gray v. Commonwealth) 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
Gray v. Commonwealth, 188 S.W. 354, 171 Ky. 269, 1916 Ky. LEXIS 331 (Ky. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

Judge Hurt

Affirming.

The appellant, J. H. Gray, by means of a warrant charging him with a violation of section 1321, Ky. Statutes, was brought before the police court for the city of Louisville. He was adjudged to he guilty of the offense denounced by the statute and a fine of fifty dollars and the costs of the prosecution imposed npon him. He appealed from the judgment of the police court to the circuit court. A trial by jury was duly waived and the judge of the circuit court heard and determined both the facts and law of the case. A trial resulted in appellant being found guilty as charged in the warrant, and the [270]*270same penalty for his offense was' imposed by the circuit court, as was imposed by the police court. ITis motion for a new trial being overruled, he has appealed to this court. The ground relied upon in the circuit court for a new trial and in this court for a reversal of the judgment is, that the judgment is contrary to law and the evidence.

The facts of the case are as follows: The appellant was a barber, who conducted the business of a barber in his shop, which was located at 418 West Walnut street, in the city of Louisville, and the conduct of the business was his regular trade and calling, and on the 2nd <day of April, 1916, which was Sunday or the Sabbath, -the appellant opened his shop as usual, and there shaved .•and trimmed the hair of several persons, in fact, all the -jpersons who entered the shop on that day and requested 4hat such services be rendered them, and he, also, employed another barber in shaving persons and trimming their hair in his shop on the same day, and for all the services rendered the persons for whom barbering was done, the appellant 'charged the customary sums, which they paid.

There being no dispute as to the facts, the only question for determination is, whether the facts above stated constituted a violation of section 1321, Ky. Statutes, and whether the circuit court erred in construing the proven facts to be a violation of the statute and imposing the penalty for its violation.

The statute is as follows: “No work or business shall be done on the Sabbath day, except the ordinary household offices, or other work of necessity or charity, or work required in the maintenance or operation of a ferry,, skiff or steamboat or steam or street railroads. If any person on the Sabbath day shall himself be found at his own or at any other trade or calling, or shall employ his apprentices or other person in labor or other business, whether the same be for profit or amusement, unless such as is permitted above, he shall be fined not less than two nor more than fifty dollars for each offense. Every person or apprentice so employed shall be deemed a separate offense. Persons who are members of a religious society, who observe as a Sabbath any other day of the week than Sunday, shall not be liable to the .penalty prescribed in this section, if they observe as a Sabbath one day in each seven, as herein provided. ’ ’

[271]*271The appellant does not contend that he was not engaged in working at his own trade or calling, or that he did not. have other persons employed in the work of barbering for profit on the Sabbath; neither does he contend that barbering is not a work or business, but his sole contention is, that the business of shaving persons and trimming their hair and performing the other services usually rendered by a barber for his patrons is a work of necessity, within the meaning of the statute, and that the performance of such work is within the exception in the statute and therefore lawful. It will be observed that the law making department of the government has not declared any works or business to be works of necessity, except the ordinary household offices, or work required in thn maintenance or operation of a ferry, skiff or steamboat or steam or street railroads. As to what other works or business are works of necessity, and when any particular work or business is a work of necessity and lies within the exception in the statute is left to be determined by the courts upon the facts and under the circumstances of each particular instance. It is apparent that the changing’ conditions of civilization, the improvements in the methods of transportation to meet the demands of increasing commercial relations, the demand of social relations, which did not formerly exist, have made works which were once not regarded by the-common sense of the country as works of necessity, to' be regarded and held by that same common sense as: works of necessity. It is, also, apparent that ordinary-avocations, which are not ordinarily works of necessity, may, by the exigencies of occasions, become works of necessity. The harvesting of a tobacco crop is not commonly or ordinarily a work of necessity, but if the chill of the atmosphere portends a destructive frost upon the night following the Sabbath day, the common sense of the country declares the immediate cutting of the crop to be a work of necessity. Exigencies may arise in almost every trade or calling, which is not ordinarily a work of necessity, which will make upon the occasion the work of the trade or calling a necessity. A new condition may arise in the manner of doing business and may become the ordinary way of doing business, and thus make work, which theretofore was not a work of necessity, become one. Hence, no hard and fast rule can be adopted which should be applied to all works and at all times and [272]*272under all circumstances for determining what are works of necessity within the meaning of the statute. All the states have statute laws which make it unlawful to do the work of one’s calling, or the trade of another, upon the Sabbath day, but all of them make an exception of works of necessity and charity. Under these statutes many adjudications have been made by the courts touching what are works of necessity within the meaning of the statutes, hut many of them are based upon statutes which are different in their terms to our statute, and which cause the adjudications to be valueless in determining the question of what is a work of necessity within the exception of our statute. The state of Massachusetts has a statute which declares that, “Whoever on "the Lord’s day keeps open his shop, warehouse or workIhonse, or does' any manner of labor, business or work, except works of necessity or charity, shall be punished, etc.” The supreme court of the state in Com. v. Dextra, 143 Mass. 28, while declining to decide whether it was a work of necessity to cut hair and shave beards on the Lord’s day, held that Dextra, a barber, was amenable to the penalty prescribed by the statute for keeping open his barber shop upon that day for the purpose of following his trade as a barber. In the State v. Kuehier, 110 S. W. 605, the Missouri supreme court held that it was not a work of necessity within the exceptions to the Sunday law in force in that state for a barber to ply his usual avocation on that day by cutting the hair and shaving a customer. The same court held to the same view in State v. Schatt, 107 S. W. 10.

In State v. Frederick, 45 Ark. 347, the court held that judicial notice would be taken, that the shaving of his customers by a barber is a, work done by him in the course of his ordinary calling and is not a work of necessity within the exception of the statute. In McCain v. State, 58 S. E. 550, the supreme court of the state of Georgia referred to and approved the conclusion of the court in State v. Frederick, supra.

In Petit v. Minnesota, 177 U. S. 164

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Bluebook (online)
188 S.W. 354, 171 Ky. 269, 1916 Ky. LEXIS 331, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-commonwealth-kyctapp-1916.