People v. Gardner

106 N.W. 541, 143 Mich. 104, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 607
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1906
DocketDocket No. 17
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 106 N.W. 541 (People v. Gardner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Gardner, 106 N.W. 541, 143 Mich. 104, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 607 (Mich. 1906).

Opinion

Hooker, J.

The defendant has been convicted a second time of violating a garbage ordinance of the city of Detroit. He questions the conviction upon two grounds: First, that the ordinance is void; second, that the court erred in directing a verdict of guilty.

That a city may lawfully pass an ordinance like this must be considered settled by the decision in the case of People v. Gardner, 136 Mich. 693, where this identical ordinance was held valid, and a former conviction of this defendant was affirmed. See, also, Fischer v. St. Louis, 194 U. S. 361.

Upon a prosecution for a second offense, his counsel claimed the right to show by testimony that the ordinance was not passed in a bona fide attempt to conserve the public health, but to create a monopoly for the benefit of the Detroit Sanitary Works, a concern to which was granted the exclusive right to remove garbage from the city. The testimony offered was, in substance, that said company did not, and could not, with the teams and men actually employed, thoroughly do the work contracted, and that complaints made were not investigated or acted upon by the city authorities. That this was known to be inevitable by the council, when the ordinance was passed, [106]*106because the same conditions existed under one or more former contracts with the Detroit Sanitary Works.

Upon the trial of the former case, it was claimed that the ordinance was void because unreasonable, and therefore the question must have been passed upon. The only difference between that record and this, so far as they relate to this point, is that in the former case the opinion states that the facts were not in dispute, while upon the trial of this case counsel offered to show the facts before mentioned, and was not permitted to do so. As stated, we have held that the ordinance is valid upon its face, and, were it clear that the question is before us, we should not hesitate to say that there is nothing in the ordinance that is impracticable or unreasonable in itself.

The question of fraud: Counsel offered to produce testimony which he said would tend to show that the purpose of the council was fraudulent, and to create a monopoly of the garbage business in the hands of the contractor. We have alluded to the fact that, in passing ordinances, a common council acts under delegated authority, as an inferior legislative body. Nothing is better settled than the rule that the motives of a legislature or of the members cannot be inquired into,, for the purpose of determining the validity of its laws. See Doyle v. Insurance Co., 94 U. S. 535, and cases cited in McQuillin on Municipal Ordinances, § 161. That author says:

“The general rule is well established that courts will, not inquire into the motives of legislators where they possess the power to do the act, and it has been exercised as. prescribed by the organic law. In such case the doctrine, is that the legislators are responsible alone to the people who elect them. And this principle is generally applied to purely legislative acts of municipal corporations. In passing an ordinance legislative in character, relating te the police power and importing no private contract or right, ‘ the members of the city council are entitled to the same privileges and prerogatives which belong to members of the State legislature.’ Neither the motives of the members, nor the influences under which they acted, can. [107]*107be shown to nullify an ordinance duly passed in legal form, within the scope of their corporate powers.
“ ‘ The legality of the acts of legislative or of corporate bodies cannot be tested by the motives of the individual members, or the adventitious circumstances they may lay hold of to carry their measures, provided they proceed regularly and act within the scope of their powers. If they be regularly convened, if the purpose be lawful, and if their acts are passed in due form of law and within the scope of their authority, persons who lend their money on the faith of such acts, or do other lawful things in a just reliance upon their validity, cannot be affected by the secret springs of corporate action, and the public faith cannot be tarnished by the unseen influences surrounding it.’ Borough of Freeport v. Marks, 59 Pa. 257.”

The case of Soon Hing v. Crowley, 113 U. S. 703, 710, is in point, where, in considering a police ordinance, Mr. Justice Field, with the approval of his associates, said:

“ The rule is general, with reference to the enactments of all legislative bodies, that the courts cannot inquire into the motives of the legislators in passing them, except as they may be disclosed on the face of the acts, or infer-able from their operation, considered with reference to the condition of the country and existing legislation. The motives of the legislators, considered as the purposes they had in view, will always be presumed to be to accomplish that which follows as the natural and reasonable effect of their enactments. Their motives, considered as the moral inducements for their votes, will vary with the different members of the legislative body. The diverse character of such motives, and the impossibility Of penetrating into the hearts of men and ascertaining the truth, precludes all such inquiries as impracticable and futile.”

Mr. Dillon questions the application of this rule to cases involving municipal ordinances. 1 Dillon on Municipal Corporations (4th Ed.), § 311. He says:

“It is well settled that the judicial branch of the government cannot institute an inquiry into the motives of the legislative department in the enactment of laws. Such an inquiry would not only be impracticable in most cases, but the assumption and exercise of such a power would result in subordinating the legislature to the courts. In an[108]*108alogy to this rule it is doubtless true that the courts will not, in general, inquire into the motives of the council in passing ordinances. But it would be disastrous, as we think, to apply the analogy to its full extent. Municipal bodies, like the directories of private corporations, have too often shown themselves capable of using their powers fraudulently, for their own advantage or to the injury of others. We suppose it to be a sound proposition, that their acts, whether in the form of resolutions or ordinances, may be impeached for fraud at the instance of persons injured thereby.”

It is noticeable that he supports the first proposition of his text by the citation of Cooley on Constitutional Limitations (7th Ed.), pp. 257, 258, where many cases are collected, but expresses the opinion that the acts of a council “may be impeached for fraud at the instance of persons injured thereby. ” No authority supporting this opinion is cited, except it be the case of State v. Gaslight & Coke Co., 18 Ohio St. 262. That case recognizes the rule, and says:

“ As the legislature is a co-ordinate branch of the government, the jurisdiction of the judiciary to declare its acts of legislation within its constitutional sphere invalid on account of the improper motives which induced their enactment may well be denied.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 N.W. 541, 143 Mich. 104, 1906 Mich. LEXIS 607, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gardner-mich-1906.