People v. Butler

252 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 1053, 59 Cal. Rptr. 924, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1597
CourtAppellate Division of the Superior Court of California
DecidedJuly 3, 1967
DocketCrim. A. No. 181; Crim. A. No. 182; Crim. A. No. 183
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 252 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 1053 (People v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Superior Court of California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Butler, 252 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 1053, 59 Cal. Rptr. 924, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1597 (Cal. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

THOMPSON (H. V.), J.

These consolidated appeals arise out of a dismissal by the Municipal Court of the Fresno Judicial District of complaints against the defendants, charging them with a violation of section 8-120 of the Fresno Municipal Code, which section provides:

“Sec. 8-120. Drinking On Street Or Playground. No person shall drink any beer, wine, or other intoxicating beverage on any street, sidewalk, alley, highway, or playground. This section shall not be deemed to make punishable any act or acts which are prohibited by any law of the State of California. ’ ’

The dismissal of the complaints by the municipal court was predicated upon the court’s expressed belief that the State had completely preempted the regulation of the many facets of the alcoholic beverage field, and that, therefore, the foregoing provision of the Municipal Code was invalid. With this conclusion we cannot agree.

As a chartered city under the provisions of article XI, section 11, of the state Constitution, the City of Fresno is empowered to “. . . make and enforce within its limits all such local, police, and sanitary and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.”

No clairvoyance is required to visualize that the consumption of alcoholic beverages on public streets, etc., could well constitute a social evil and police problem, particularly when we consider such a public gathering place as a mall where large numbers of the people congregate into the evening.

Unless action by the city is barred by the enactment of state laws exclusively preempting the field, most certainly a city would be empowered to control the actual and potential social hazard created by the consumption of alcohol on the streets, etc.

The provisions of article XX, section 22 of the California Constitution provide in part: “The State of California . . . shall have the exclusive right and power to license and regulate the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession, and transportation of alcoholic beverages within the state . . .” It will be noted that the above section by its terms preempts the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession, and transportation of such beverages, but make no mention of consumption.

State laws, to be sure, have been adopted to regulate consumption under certain specific conditions and situations. For example, state law proscribes the drinking of liquor in a vehicle upon a public highway (Veh. Code, § 23121), drinking [Supp. 1056]*Supp. 1056on public school grounds (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 25606), drinking on licensed (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 25632) and unlicensed (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 25604) premises, and drinking by minors in any on-sale licensed premises (Bus. & Prof. Code, §25658). We do not believe that by the adoption of such selective laws, the Legislature intended to say that it had covered all those areas wherein the consumption of alcoholic beverages might create police problems. By prohibiting the consumption of liquor by minors on on-sale premises, was it intended to be implied that they could drink elsewhere? We have already seen that the basic constitutional provisions on the subject make no allusion whatsoever to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

In short, we find no such occupation of the field as is revealed in In re Lane, 58 Cal.2d 99 [22 Cal.Rptr. 857, 372 P.2d 897] ; In re Koehne, 59 Cal.2d 646 [30 Cal.Rptr. 809, 381 P.2d 633]; In re Zorn, 59 Cal.2d 650 [30 Cal.Rptr. 811, 381 P.2d 635]; People v. Lopez, 59 Cal.2d 653 [30 Cal.Rptr. 813, 381 P.2d 637].

Moreover, the provisions of the Municipal Code here in question specifically provide that it does not apply to any act specifically prohibited by state law. While this exclusionary provision could not save the ordinance if it substantially duplicated state law in all areas within its scope, it does avoid any contention that it would be a duplication of state law if it intended, for example, to regulate the consumption of alcohol in a vehicle upon a public street.

It does seem strange that no appellate decision to our knowledge has appeared passing upon this field of wide concern. However, there is no dearth of Attorney General’s opinion on the subject. Within one year of the passage of article XX, section 22, the Attorney General advised the Board of Equalization that it had not power to regulate the consumption of alcoholic beverages on the streets of an incorporated city. (Unreported Decision No. 1-9443, July 9, 1934.) To our knowledge the Board of Equalization has not retreated from this position.

In a more recent opinion (Sept. 8, 1961) the Attorney General’s office advised the District Attorney of Trinity County that while his county could not validly adopt an ordinance forbidding the possession of alcoholic beverages in a county hospital, no objection could be seen to an ordinance forbidding the unauthorized consxmption of alcoholic beverages in such a public facility. (38 Ops. Cal. Atty. Gen. 64.)

[Supp. 1057]*Supp. 1057In the same vein, the Attorney General’s office (Op. No. 61-66, July 10, 1962), advised the State Director of Parks and Recreation in part that the ordinance of the City of Santa Cruz prohibiting (in part) the consumption Of liquor in public parks and on beaches was valid, stating: (Vol. 40, p. 13) . . there is nothing in the state law which indicates an intention fully to occupy the field relating to the consumption of alcoholic beverages in other than licensed premises, and the general rule permitting additional supplementary local regulation is, therefore, applicable. (Pulcifer v. County of Alameda, 29 Cal.2d 258 [175 P.2d 1]) . . .” Strength is lent to this opinion by the fact that the Attorney General, in an area where the state's prerogatives would be zealously guarded, ruled that the city ordinance prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in the portion of a state park lying within the city’s boundaries was enforceable by the city.

Two recent decisions, In re Hubbard, 62 Cal.2d 119 [41 Cal.Rptr. 393, 396 P.2d 809], and People v. McGennis, 244 Cal.App.2d 527 [53 Cal.Rptr. 215], both relating to local gaming ordinances, established criteria that are most illuminating. In the Hubbard

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
252 Cal. App. Supp. 2d 1053, 59 Cal. Rptr. 924, 1967 Cal. App. LEXIS 1597, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-butler-calappdeptsuper-1967.