People v. Coulides

148 Misc. 292, 265 N.Y.S. 765, 1933 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1198
CourtNew York County Courts
DecidedJune 29, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 148 Misc. 292 (People v. Coulides) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York County Courts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Coulides, 148 Misc. 292, 265 N.Y.S. 765, 1933 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1198 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1933).

Opinion

Turk, J.

This is an appeal from a conviction had before the police justice of the village of Endicott on the 9th day of April, 1932, for violation of section 1 of an ordinance of the village of Endicott, Broome county, N. Y., entitled “ An ordinance to aid in the promotion of public welfare by prohibiting the manufacture and sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within the said village.” Following a trial before the police justice the defendant was adjudged a disorderly person and guilty of disorderly conduct. The ordinance in question, passed by the board of trustees of the village of Endicott, reads, in part, as follows: Section 1. The manufacture, sale, furnishing, or transportation of intoxicating liquor within this village of Endicott is prohibited. Section 2. Any person violating any of the provisions of this ordinance shall incur and forfeit a penalty of $100 and in addition thereto any violation of any of the provisions of this ordinance shall constitute disorderly conduct, and any person violating the same shall be a disorderly person.”

There was sufficient evidence introduced at the trial to justify a decision that, at the time charged in the information, the defendant was engaged in both the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in the village of Endicott. In fact, that question is not seriously disputed by the appellant. The appellant does contend, however, that the ordinance under which he was convicted was unconstitutional and that is the whole question to be decided in this case.

The preamble to the ordinance reads as follows: “ The Board of Trustees of the Village of Endicott, New York, pursuant to the authority vested by subdivision 59 of section 89 of the Village Law of the State of New York and of Acts amendatory thereof or supplemental thereto, does hereby enact and adopt the following ordinance: ” Subdivision 59 of section 89 of the Village Law reads as follows: “ The board of trustees * * * may take all measures, do all acts, and enact any ordinances, not inconsistent with existing law which shall be deemed expedient or desirable for the good government of the village, its management and business, the protection of its property, safety and health of its inhabitants, the protection of their property, the preservation of peace and good order, the suppression of vice, benefit of trade, the preservation and protection of the public streets, the preservation of health, the prevention and extinguishment of fires, and may generally exercise all the powers granted to the village.” It is from this provision of the Village Law that the village board claims to have received [294]*294authority to enact the ordinance in question. The ordinance is, therefore, enacted pursuant to general authority and not under specific authority of the Legislature. Before legislative authority to enact an ordinance can be said to be specific, a grant must define its details and mode of enforcement.” (People ex rel. Knoblauch v. Warden, 216 N. Y. 154.) The power is general when the manner of exercising it is not specific. (Village of Carthage v. Frederick, 122 N. Y. 268.) Where an ordinance is enacted in pursuance to general authority, it may be opposed as unreasonable and evidence may be introduced on that question. If, as stated in Safee v. City of Buffalo (204 App. Div. 561), it appears there is no evil or no reasonable relation between the evil and the remedy, the court may say the ordinance is void. Conversely, if it appears that there is reasonable ground to believe the evil exists, even though there be 1 earnest conflict of serious opinion ’ about it; and if the remedy is fairly adapted to cure the evil without oppression, discrimination or confiscation, then it is the duty of the court to hold it good.”

We may then well ask, Is the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor in violation of the National Prohibition Act, in a private house in the village of Endicott, a menace to the good government of the village, or, bearing in mind that the liquor in question was manufactured in an open crock, was it a menace to the public health of the village and was the suppression thereof expedient and desirable for the good government of the village, for the protection and safety and health of its inhabitants and for the preservation of the peace and good order? ”

It cannot be said that this ordinance was inconsistent with existing law, for there was no law at that time in the State of New York governing the sale and transportation of liquor. The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States operates throughout all of the territorial limits of the United States. It “ binds all legislative bodies, courts, public officers and individuals within those limits, and by its own force invalidates every legislative act — whether by Congress, by a state legislature or by a territorial assembly — which authorizes or sanctions what this section prohibits.” (National Prohibition Cases, 253 U. S. 350.) Each State was empowered, for purposes of enforcement, to declare that the prohibited acts might constitute offenses against its own peace and dignity; and in accordance therewith the State of New York passed an act which was commonly known as the Mullan-Gage Act. This was in effect until 1923 when it was repealed by the Legislature of the State of New York. In People v. Vandewater (250 N. Y. 83) Judge Lehman said: “ We recognize that [295]*295the repeal of the State Enforcement Act has been sometimes regarded as a legislative declaration that the policy of the National Enforcement Act is not in accord with the public policy of the State. Doubtless there are many citizens who regard the 18th Amendment as wrong in principle and pernicious in practice.” This cannot, however, be said to be an existing law conflicting with the ordinance in question. Judge Lehman further pointed out that “ opponents and supporters of Prohibition are alike vociferous in their alarm of the debauchery of morals, the injury to health, the disturbance of the peace of the State which flow from the maintenance of illicit drinking places. None can doubt that from their nature such drinking places are an injury to the State.” In a concurring opinion in the case of People v. Vandewater, Judge Crane said: “ The maintenance of a ' speakeasy ’ or a saloon for the sale of intoxicating liquors is the doing of an act which endangers the health of the persons taking or buying liquor. The only justification for the 18th Amendment and the National Prohibition Act is that intoxicating liquors are injurious to health. For this reason their sale has been prohibited.” It may, therefore, then be said to be the established law of this State that an ordinance or an act which attempts to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicants contrary to the provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment is an ordinance or act desirable for good government, and for the preservation of the health of the inhabitants of a municipality, and clearly within the powers delegated to a village under the provisions of the Village Law.

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Bluebook (online)
148 Misc. 292, 265 N.Y.S. 765, 1933 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1198, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-coulides-nycountyct-1933.