One Cadillac Automobile, 1918 Model v. State

1919 OK 115, 182 P. 227, 75 Okla. 134, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 43
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 15, 1919
Docket10424
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1919 OK 115 (One Cadillac Automobile, 1918 Model v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
One Cadillac Automobile, 1918 Model v. State, 1919 OK 115, 182 P. 227, 75 Okla. 134, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 43 (Okla. 1919).

Opinion

HARDX, C. J.

On September 7, 1918, the county attorney of Logan county, in the name of the state, filed a petition against one Cadillac automobile, 1918 model, wherein he alleged that one Hargrove and another had unlawfully, willfully, knowingly, and intentionally transported intoxicating liquors in said automobile in said county, contrary to and in violation of the laws of this state, and praying that said automobile be forfeited to the state in pursuance of the provisions of chapter 188, Sess. Laws 1917. Thereafter Hargrove made special appearance and pleaded to the jurisdiction of the court, among other reasons because chapter 188, Sess. Laws 1917, is unconstitutional and void and repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the state of Oklahoma, in that it specifically denied the right to a trial by jury of the issue as to whether the property seized was being used for unlawful purposes. Trial resulted in a judgment in favor of the state, and Hargrove appeals.

It is now well settled that the Seventh amendment to the federal Constitution was not intended to guarantee a trial by jury to a litigant in a civil action in the courts of the several states, and the right to such trial in proceedings pending in state courts must be found in some provision of the state Constitution or statute preserving or granting such right. St. L. & S. F. R. Co. v. Brown, 45 Okla. 143, 144 Pac. 1075; Adams v. Iten Biscuit Co., 63 Oklahoma, 162 Pac. 944; C., R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Ward, 68 Oklahoma, 173 Pac. 212; Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U. S. 90, 23 L. Ed. 678; St. L. & S. F. R. Co. v. Brown, 241 U. S. 223, 36 Sup. Ct. 602, 60 L. Ed. 966.

The right to trial by jury, secured to the people of this state by section 19, art. 2, of the Constitution, is a trial according to the course of the common law as it existed and the same in substance as that which was in use when the Constitution was adopted, except as specifically modified by other provisions of the Constitution. Baker v. Newton, 27 Okla. 436, 112 Pac. 1034, 40 L. R. A. (N. S.) 940; Hale v. Marshall, 52 Okla. 688, 153 Pac. 167; Parker v. Hamilton, 49 Okla. 693, 154 Pac. 65.

In State ex rel. Caldwell v. Hooker, County Judge, 22 Okla. 712, 98 Pac. 964, this court had under consideration an act (Laws 1907-08, p. 594, c. 69) the general object of which was to prohibit traffic in intoxicating liquors, except as therein provided. In that case it was contended that the act was unconstitutional because no provision was made therein for a trial by jury as to property rights. This contention was denied, and the court indulged the presumption that the ordinary procedure before magistrates and county and district courts was contemplated, and therefore the party was entitled to a trial by jury, and that, if the Legislature had intended a procedure different from that usually obtained before such magistrate and courts, it would have so declared. The opinion does not determine whether the act would have been unconstitutional had it specifically denied a right to a jury trial upon such issues.

Section 2 of chapter 188, Sess. Laws 1917, provides:

“Sec. 2. The court having jurisdiction of the property so seized shall without a jury order an immediate hearing as to whether the property so seized was being used for unlawful purposes, and take such legal evidence as are offered on each behalf and determine the same as in civil cases. * * *”

Is this act invalid because it provides for a trial without a jury? The rule in the courts of the • United States is that in all cases of seizure on land or upon water, not navigable, the issues of fact therein must be determined by a jury; but, where the seizure is made upon navigable waters, the cause is determined without the intervention of a jury. The Sarah, 8 Wheat, 391, 5 L. Ed. 644; Morris’s Cotton, 8 Wall. 507, 19 L. Ed. 481; Confiscation Cases, 20 Wall. 92, 22 L. Ed. 320; Henderson’s Distilled Spirits, 14 Wall. 44, 20 L. Ed. 815; Shawnee National Bank v. United States, 249 Fed. 583, 61 C. C. A. 509.

At common law, in case of a forfeiture of real estate, it was necessary that a jury should try the question as to whether a forfeiture should be decreed. 2 Blackstone’s Commentaries, c. 18, p. 271. There were numerous instances, however, where summary proceedings were disposed of without the aid *136 of a jury. 4 Blackstone’s Commentaries, c. 20, p. 280; Lawton v. Steele, 152 U. S. 133, 14 Sup. Ct. 499, 38 L. Ed. 385. In all of the states of the American Union, it has been the practice to try persons charged with petty offenses before police magistrates who determine the question of guilt and mete out proper punishment without the intervention of a jury, and it has never been treated by any of the courts as an infraction of the constitutional guarantee of the right to a trial by jury; and the summary abatement of nuisances without judicial process or proceeding was well known to the common law long prior to the adoption of the federal or any of the state Constitutions, and it has never been supposed that the constitutional guaranty of a jury trial was intended to interfere with this jurisdiction and power. Lawton v. Steele, 152 U. S. 133, 14 Sup. Ct. 499, 38 L. Ed. 385. In the last-cited case, the Supreme Court of the United States enumerated certain instances in which summary proceedings were resorted to without the intervention of a jury; among them, the killing of diseased cattle, pulling down houses in the path of a conflagration, the destruction of decayed fruits, fish, unwholesome meats, infected clothing, obscene books, pictures, or instruments which can only be used for illegal purposes. The court observed that it was not easy to draw the line between cases where property illegally used might be destroyed summarily and where judicial proceedings were necessary for its condemnation. That case involved the constitutionality of an act of the Legislature of the state of New York (Laws 1880, c. 591, as amended by Laws 1883, c. 317), entitled “An act for the appointment of game and fish protectors,” which authorized the protectors to seize, remove, and destroy any net, pound, or other means or device for catching or capturing fish in violation of the laws of the state. A game and fish protector had destroyed certain nets taken in unlawful fishing, and his authority to do so was upheld. A common illustration of legislation of this kind is the passage of laws providing for summary seizure and destruction of intoxicating liquors kept and intended for illegal sale and the fixtures used in connection with such illegal traffic and the summary destruction of gambling paraphernalia. It is generally held that such laws are not invalid because they deny the right of trial by jury. Our attention is called to no decision by this court, nor do we know of any, determining whether a trial by jury existed in a proceeding of this character prior to statehood. We are therefore compelled to look further to ascertain what was the state of the law in the territory composing this state prior to the adoption of our Constitution. By section 11 of the Organic Act, 26 Stat. at L.

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Bluebook (online)
1919 OK 115, 182 P. 227, 75 Okla. 134, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/one-cadillac-automobile-1918-model-v-state-okla-1919.