Hahn v. City of Newport

194 S.W. 114, 175 Ky. 185, 1917 Ky. LEXIS 304
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedApril 24, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 194 S.W. 114 (Hahn v. City of Newport) 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
Hahn v. City of Newport, 194 S.W. 114, 175 Ky. 185, 1917 Ky. LEXIS 304 (Ky. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Thomas

Affirming.

This litigation challenges the validity of an ordinance passed by the board of commissioners of the city of Newport, Ky., which, omitting its title and the section providing for a penalty for its violation, is as follows:

“That it shall be unlawful to sell meats in retail quantities from a wagon or vehicle within or upon the streets of the city of Newport.”

The second section provides a penalty for a violation thereof of a fine not exceeding $10.00 and the costs of the prosecution.

The appellant (plaintiff below) in his pleading drawing the validity of the ordinance in question, after stating that he was engaged in retailing fresh meat from a one-horse wagon, operated on the streets of the city of Newport, and that he had theretofore obtained a license authorizing him to sell fresh meat in the city, as required by another and separate ordinance, says:

“Plaintiff says that said ordinance is invalid in that the subject of the ordinance is not expressed in the title; that said ordinance is invalid because it is arbitrary, unreasonable, unnecessary, oppressive, unduly discriminatory, monopolistic and confiscatory; because it is a gross abuse of the police power, and confers exclusive privileges upon all other meat dealers not embraced in said ordinance, and because it deprives plaintiff of his property without due process of law, and that said ordinance is in contravention of Article 14 of the amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of Kentucky.”

A demurrer filed to the petition was overruled, followed by an answer putting in issue all the allegations attacking the validity of the ordinance, and upon proof heard the court upheld the validity of the ordinance as a valid exercise of the police power and dismissed the petition, from which the plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.

We need spend no time upon the challenge made to the sufficiency of the title to the ordinance, as that question seems to have been abandoned, not being urged before [187]*187ns, and if it were otherwise it is perfectly apparent that there is no merit in the contention, as the ordinance appears to be in strict conformity to its title.

The only testimony adduced in behalf of appellees, who were defendants below, is that of the city physician, who, according to his testimony, is an expert as well as a highly qualified physician, and eminently qualified to testify concerning the matters about which h'e was questioned. He was asked and answered question number six in his deposition, which is: “ Q. State what, in your opinion, would be the probable effect upon the health of the community if persons were permitted to retail and sell fresh meats from wagons, and why the effect would follow A. In my opinion it would be unsanitary, and a germ breeder, and my reason for saying it is a germ breeder is because flies lighting on the meat, and dust blowing on it would be one of the best things to carry typhoid fever.” In other parts of his testimony be shows (which is a matter of common knowledge) that in cities of the size and population of those belonging to the second class the dust from the streets is much more liable to be contaminated with unhealthy germs than in less populated sections, and that the producing cause for this is also more calculated to attract quantities of flies than in the sparsely settled communities. Erom his testimony there can be no doubt that, to say the least of it, the selling of fresh meats in the manner sought to be prohibited by the ordinance in such localities is calculated to render it unwholesome, unhealthy and productive of disease to those who consume it. The preservation of the public health as a part of the functions of the law-making body under the exercise of the police power has from time immemorial been recognized. In 28 Cyc. 709, speaking upon this precise point, it is said:

“The preservation of the health of the population is uniformly recognized as a most important municipal function; and the power to adopt and enforce sanitary regulations appropriate to this end is inherent in a municipality. Congested populations tend to breed disease as well as disorder, and since health, as well as order, is an essential condition of good living, and one of the primary purposes of municipal incorporation, sanitary powers may not only be expressly conferred by the charter, or implied therefrom, but they have been judicially declared to be inherent in a municipality as a necessary attribute thereof, and are favored in American courts.”

[188]*188The quotation is broad enough to include many matters upon which the municipality may legislate which legislation has for its purpose the maintenance of the health of its inhabitants. It is scarcely probable that any particular matter could have a more direct influence upon this object and purpose than that pertaining to the sanitary handling of food. In substantiation of this, in the samfe volume of Cyc., page 734, it is said:

“Accordingly in the exercise of its authorized police power a municipality may by ordinance prohibit hawking and peddling of meat, game, and poultry; the sale of adulterated or impure milk, skim milk, or milk from cows fed on still slops; of oysters away from oyster stands; of any unwholesome food; of short-weight bread; of less than a quarter of meat outside of market stalls; the peddling of fruits or vegetables anywhere between five o’clock a. m. and one o’clock p. m.; or at any time within six squares of a public market; any sale of corn or food outside of the market, or of uninspected or untagged meat; the sale of anything but fruit by keepers of fruit stands within two thousand one hundred feet of the market; the sale of cider in less quantities than a gallon, and any drinking on the premises; but not the sale of meat, fish, butter, and other food articles in a general store. By the weight of authority police license may be required for the sale of meat, or for the sale of salt meat, and fish outside the market; milk, groceries, and victuals, and other articles of food; or for the wholesaling of beer, although ordinances of this kind have' been held void in a few cases. A grant to a municipal corporation of power to regulate by ordinance the vending of meat, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables gives authority to prescribe by ordinance the times and places of their sale, and to prohibit the sale of them elsewhere.” The text is sustained by many authorities found in the notes.

• We are not called upon, however, in this case, to determine whether the authority attempted to be exercised by the ordinance in question is inherent in the city of Newport as such authority is unquestionably given by sub-section 8 of section 3058 of the Kentucky Statutes (a part of the charter for second class cities), wherein it is provided that: ‘ The General Council shall have power by ordinance ... to restrain and punish engrossing, forestalling and regratiiig; to regulate the inspection and vending of flesh, fish, meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables, [189]*189butter, lard and other provisions, and the place and manner of selling and inspecting the same.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
194 S.W. 114, 175 Ky. 185, 1917 Ky. LEXIS 304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hahn-v-city-of-newport-kyctapp-1917.