Komen v. City of St. Louis

289 S.W. 838, 316 Mo. 9, 1926 Mo. LEXIS 639
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 20, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 289 S.W. 838 (Komen v. City of St. Louis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Komen v. City of St. Louis, 289 S.W. 838, 316 Mo. 9, 1926 Mo. LEXIS 639 (Mo. 1926).

Opinion

*12 WALKER, P. J.

The plaintiff brought suit in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis to enjoin the police from arresting him for keeping open his bakery on Sunday and exposing to sale his products after nine o ’clock, a. m. of that 'day in violation of a city ordinance, No. 31353, prohibiting the sale of bread, cakes and other bakery products after nine o’clock, a. m. on the first day of the week, called Sunday. Upon the filing of the petition a temporary restraining order was issued enjoining the plaintiff’s arrest for the violation of the ordinance. On a final hearing a permanent writ was denied. From this judgment the plaintiff appealed to this court and, pending the determination of the appeal, the trial court ordered the temporary injunction to remain in force.

The plaintiff alleges that he and his patrons are Orthodox Jews; that his products are prepared in accordance with the requirements of that faith; and that he and they observe Saturday or the Jewish Sabbath as a day of worship and rest, and that Ordinance No. 31353 discriminates against them and violates their religious freedom.

The ordinance complained of is as follows:

“Be it ordained by the City of St. Louis, as follows:
“Section One. — No baker, or bakeshop keeper shall keep open or exhibit for sale or sell any of the articles hereinafter described on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, after the hour of nine o’clock, A. M.
“Section Two. — Penalty for keeping open stores. Any keeper of a bakery store, or bakeshop, who shall keep open said store or shop for the purpose of sale or expose for sale or sell any of the articles hereinafter enumerated on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction *13 thereof, shall be fined not less than twenty or more than fifty dollars for each and every offense.
“Section Three. — Bakery storekeeper defined. Sale of article prohibited. When. A bakery storekeeper or shopkeeper, within the meaning of this ordinance, shall be defined to be any person or persons, copartnership or corporation, dealing in bread, coffee cake, sweet cakes, donghnnts, pies, biscuits, crullers, rolls and buns or any of them.
“Section Four. — Owner or Agent’s liability. A keeper of a bakery shop, confectionary or store within the meaning of this ordinance shall be construed to include the agents and servants of such keeper as far as the penalties of this ordinance and liabilities thereunder are concerned.
“Approved July 11, 1921.”

The validity of this ordinance is assailed for the reasons set forth in plaintiff’s petition, which we will consider later.

At the hearing on the merits in the circuit court testimony as to the religion of the plaintiff and his patrons, the requirement of their religion as to the preparation of food, the volume of plaintiff’s business and the effect thereon of enforcing the ordinance, the sale after nine o ’clock, a. M. on Sunday of similar products as a component part of meals by hotels and restaurants, plaintiff’s observance of Saturday as a day of rest and his inability to prepare his products in time to supply his patrons therewith before nine o’clock, A. M. on Sunday, and threats of the police to arrest him if he sold or delivered his products in violation of the terms of the ordinance, were submitted by the plaintiff.

It was shown by the defendants that plaintiff, unless prevented by the police, would keep his shop open and sell bakery products therein on Sundays after nine o’clock, a. M; that by increasing the number of his employees and enlarging his equipment plaintiff could complete the production and sale of his products by nine o’clock, a. m. on Sunday, and that the only instruction given to the police in regard to the enforcement of the ordinance was a copy delivered to the captain of each district with a typewritten notation on the bottom that violations thereof were not to be permitted.

I. Fourteen reasons are stated by the plaintiff in support of his contention that the ordinance in controversy is invalid. We shall consider them in their order.

The first assails the authority of the law-making body of the city of St. Louis to enact the ordinance and as a consequence to prescribe the regulations therein contained. Section One of Article IV of the *14 Charter of the City of St. Louis vests the legislative power of the city in a Board of Aldermen. The following paragraphs, numerically designated, of Section One of Article One of the Charter confer upon the board, in the enactment of ordinances, the following powers:

“(23) To license and regulate all persons, firms, corporations, companies and associations engaged in any business, occupation, calling, profession or trade.
“(25) To define and prohibit,, abate, suppress and prevent or license and regulate all acts, practices, conduct, business, occupations, callings, trades, uses of property and all other things whatsoever detrimental or liable to be detrimental to the health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience or welfare of the inhabitants of the city and all nuisances and causes thereof.
“(26) To prescribe limits within which business, occupations and practices liable to be nuisances or detrimental to the health, morals, security or general welfare of the people may lawfully be established, conducted or maintained.
“(33) To do all things whatsoever expedient for promoting or maintaining the comfort, education, morals, peace, government, health, welfare, trade, commerce or manufactures of the city or its inhabitants.
“(35) To exercise all powers granted or not prohibited to it by law or which it would be competent for this charter to enumerate.’'

These charter provisions are nothing more than a declaration of the city’s police power, which supplemented by Paragraph 14, Section 26, Article 3 of the Charter, known as the general' welfare clause, give the board of aldermen ample authority to enact Ordinance No. 31353, which is in the nature of a' police regulation to insure the safety, health, comfort and welfare of its citizens; but independent of these express charter provisions the implication of the city’s power arising out of the grant of its corporate existence by the State, is sufficiently evident to. authorize the enactment and enforcement of the ordinance. To hold otherwise would be to deprive the city as an entity and a recognized subdivision of the State of one of the powers necessary to enable it to perform its governmental functions. Put more strongly, the exercise of the police power by a city in the regulation of vocations is one of the municipal functions necessarily and inseparably incident to its existence as a corporation. [1 Bl. Com. 475.]

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Bluebook (online)
289 S.W. 838, 316 Mo. 9, 1926 Mo. LEXIS 639, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/komen-v-city-of-st-louis-mo-1926.