In Re Aki

163 P. 338, 32 Cal. App. 483, 1917 Cal. App. LEXIS 524
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 9, 1917
DocketCrim. No. 375.
StatusPublished

This text of 163 P. 338 (In Re Aki) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Aki, 163 P. 338, 32 Cal. App. 483, 1917 Cal. App. LEXIS 524 (Cal. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

PLUMMER, J., pro tem.

On the sixth day of March, 1916, the petitioner was convicted in the police court of the city of Sacramento of illegally selling intoxicating liquors. The gravamen of the offense consists in having sold liquors without first having obtained a license therefor, and consisted, so far as the record shows, of a single sale.

It is contended on the part of the petitioner that the ordinance under which the petitioner was convicted is a revenue measure, and therefore the city has no power to impose a license upon a single sale. The title of the ordinance involved is as follows: “An ordinance regulating the sale of wines, spirituous and malt liquors; prescribing a license therefor, regulating the management and conduct of places where such liquors are sold, furnished or given away, and fixing a penalty for the violation of this ordinance.”

*484 Section 1 provides: “It shall he unlawful for any person to keep a saloon, bar, barroom, tippling-house, dram-shop, store or other place where any wine, ale or beer, or any spirituous, vinous, malt or mixed liquors, or any intoxicating drinks, are manufactured, sold or given away, or to manufacture, sell, dispense or give away any such wine, ale or beer or spirituous, vinous, malt or mixed liquors, or any intoxicating drinks, without first having obtained a license therefor as provided in this ordinance.”

The petitioner was arrested, prosecuted, and convicted under the second provision of the above-quoted section, which purports to make it unlawful for one to sell or dispense intoxicating liquors, irrespective of place, without first having obtained a license so to do. The petitioner seeks his discharge upon the authority of the cases of Merced County v. Helm, 102 Cal. 159, [36 Pac. 399], and Ex parte Seube, 115 Cal. 629, [47 Pac. 596], and one or two minor eases involving the principle there considered.

These cases clearly establish the law that as a revenue measure a license can only be imposed upon the business of selling intoxicating liquors, etc., and that a single sale does not constitute the carrying on of such business. But these cases, and especially the Helm case, recognize the difference between police measures, or police regulations, and ordinances adopted primarily for the raising of revenue. The court, speaking through Justice Harrison, in the Helm case says: "The right of the county to prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors in the exercise of police powers conferred upon it by article XI, section 11 of the constitution ... is not involved in the determination of this case, as the ordinance in question does not purport to have been enacted under this power. By its very terms the ordinance is a revenue measure, and this suit is simply a civil action to recover a liability, etc., and the collection of a tax does not come within the exercise of police powers. . . . That power is exercised in the enforcement of the penalty prescribed for a noncompliance with the law, or for the doing of some prohibited act.” No prohibitive acts were involved in the Helm or Seube case, and no question of the police power of cities or counties, as given by section 11 of article XI in the constitution of this state, was involved.

The subdivision of the constitution just referred to reads: *485 “Any county, city, town, or township may make and enforce within its limits all such local, police, sanitary, and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.”

In chartered cities of this state there are no general laws restraining or limiting the power of the city council of such cities to make such regulations stringent, or even prohibitive, in so far as the sale of intoxicating liquors is concerned, nor does it appear that the right to prohibit or regulate the sale of intoxicating liquors depends in any wise upon the number jof sales involved, or, as said in People v. Harrison, 256 Ill. 102, [Ann. Cas. 1913E, 362, 99 N. E. 903], “the manner and extent of its regulation, if permitted to he carried on at all, are to be determined by the state, so as to limit, as far as possible, the evils arising from it. (Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U. S. 86, [34 L. Ed. 620, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 13]) In cities, authority for such regulation or prohibition has been conferred by the legislature upon the city councils, and all sales of intoxicating liquor are unlawful and are prohibited unless made by virtue of a license granted under an ordinance. The power conferred upon the city is coextensive with that of the state, and includes authority to adopt any means to reduce the evils arising from the sale of intoxicating liquor, reasonably adapted to that end, which do not violate constitutional rights. ’ ’

That the sale of spirituous liquors is a matter to be regulated under the police powers of the state has been so frequently decided that the enumeration of authorities is unnecessary.

In Ex parte Fedderwitz, 6 Cal. Unrep. 562, [62 Pac. 935], the ordinance involved provided that, “It shall be a misdemeanor for any person to sell or give away any spirituous liquors within the city, except a licensed druggist selling on the prescription of a regularly licensed physician.” It was held that the ordinance was valid, and was a proper exercise of the police power of the state in prohibiting a single act of selling or giving away of spirituous liquors by one not engaged in the liquor traffic. The court, speaking through Chief Justice Beatty, says: “The charge upon which the petitioner was convicted was that of selling and giving away malt and spirituous liquors. It is not alleged that he kept a saloon, or that he was otherwise engaged in the traffic, either as a wholesale or retail dealer; and the question is, whether the or *486 dinance contains a valid prohibition against the act charged. If it does, it does not matter that it may contain other prohibitions which the city has not the power to impose. The ordinance, in that case, would be merely void pro tanto, and its partial invalidity would not affect the judgment against this petitioner. It is claimed upon the authority of Merced County v. Helm, 102 Cal. 159, [36 Pac. 399], that a municipal corporation cannot make a single act of selling or giving away intoxicants a crime. But that case has no bearing upon the proposition. That was a civil action to recover a license which was imposed, and could only be imposed, for the privilege of conducting the business; and it was there held, among other things, that a single sale was not carrying on a business in the sense of the license laws. It does not follow from this, however, that a single sale may not constitute a crime if the ordinance so provides, as this clearly does. And the power to pass such an ordinance is granted in the most sweeping terms in section 11 of article XI of the constitution.”

Justice Beatty further, in his opinion in this case, in referring to the case of Ex parte Campbell, 74 Cal. 20, [5 Am. St. Rep. 418, 15 Pac.

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Crowley v. Christensen
137 U.S. 86 (Supreme Court, 1890)
In Re Kidd
89 P. 987 (California Court of Appeal, 1907)
Matter of Application of Anixter
134 P. 193 (California Court of Appeal, 1913)
Matter of Application of Anixter
138 P. 353 (California Supreme Court, 1914)
Ex Parte Hansen
111 P. 528 (California Supreme Court, 1910)
Matter of Application of Coombs
147 P. 131 (California Supreme Court, 1915)
Ex parte Campbell
15 P. 318 (California Supreme Court, 1887)
Merced County v. Helm & Nolan
36 P. 399 (California Supreme Court, 1894)
Ex parte Seube
47 P. 596 (California Supreme Court, 1897)
Ex Parte Fedderwitz
62 P. 935 (California Supreme Court, 1900)
People ex rel. Fitzgerald v. Harrison
99 N.E. 903 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
163 P. 338, 32 Cal. App. 483, 1917 Cal. App. LEXIS 524, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-aki-calctapp-1917.