People v. White

86 N.W. 992, 127 Mich. 428, 1901 Mich. LEXIS 1015
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 10, 1901
StatusPublished

This text of 86 N.W. 992 (People v. White) 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. White, 86 N.W. 992, 127 Mich. 428, 1901 Mich. LEXIS 1015 (Mich. 1901).

Opinion

Moore, J.

The respondent was convicted under an information charging him with failing to remove the “curtains, screens, partitions, and other things” that obstruct the view from the sidewalk, street, and alley in front and at the side of the building where his bar was located, and also charging that, if all the curtains and screens were removed, the bar was so located that it could not be seen from any public street or alley in front of or at the side of said building. He is the proprietor of the Williams House, in Battle Creek. In June he made an application to pay his liquor tax, stating in it “that he intends to engage in the business of retailing spirituous, malt, brewed, fermented, and intoxicating liquors at the Williams House, and that the place in which he proposes to carry on the business is the Williams House, East Main street, Battle Creek city, in the county of Calhoun, in the State of Michigan.” His tax was paid, and a receipt was issued to him as provided by section 5384, 2 Comp. Laws, stating the amount of the tax, and the time for which it was paid, and the kind of business,—i. e., to run a bar in the Williams House, on East Main street, Battle Creek, Mich.' The barroom and bar were located behind the check-room and office of the hotel, and where the place where the liquor is sold and kept for sale cannot be seen from any sidewalk, street, alley, or road in front of or at the side of said Williams House.

The following colloquy between the trial judge and the counsel for respondent will show the claim of respondent in the court below and here: After the proofs were closed,—

[430]*430“ Mr. Clapp, on the part of the defendant, moved that a verdict of not guilty be directed by the court.

‘ ‘ The Court: Are you willing to state your reasons?

“Mr. Clapp: Yes, sir. That, according to the evidence, the barroom is not visible from the public street, and that the law does not require it to be visible from the public street; that, if it is located on a public street or alley, then the screens must be removed; that, if it is not so located, screens do not have to be removed; that, under the showing, the authorities have taken Mr. White’s money, and approved his bonds, last June, and are presumed to know the location of that- barroom, which is in the same location that it has been in for the past 10 years at least. Again, that the statute does not require or provide that a baiToom shall be located nest to a public street or alley.

‘ ‘ The Court: I think it is conceded that the bar or the place where liquors were kept for sale and sold in this saloon is not where it could be seen from any public street or alley, though the screens were up.

“Mr. Ciarle: Yes, sir.

. “ The Court: You claim that a man has a right to put a saloon in- that kind of a place ? If he does it, it is no matter whether he keeps his screens up or not ?

“Mr. Ciarle: He does it with the approval of the authorities, who approve his bond aud accept his money.

The Court: In a case like Mr. White’s ?

“Mr. Ciarle: Had Mr. White put up some of these obstructions after the bar had been located there, and after his money had been accepted and bond approved, it would raise a different question; but, the conditions all remaining the same after the bond was approved and the money paid, the statute not requiring a saloon to be on a public street or alley, we claim the defendant is not guilty of the offense.”

Counsel have called our attention to the following cases in support of their position: Shultz v. Village of Cambridge, 38 Ohio St. 659; Com. v. Barnes, 140 Mass. 447 (5 N. E. 252 ); Com. v. Stratton, 150 Mass. 188 (22 N. E. 893); and Courtright v. Common Council of Newaygo, 96 Mich. 290 (55 N. W. 808). A reference to these cases will show they are not controlling. In Shultz v. Village of Cambridge, supra, the respondent was charged with violating an ordinance forbidding any [431]*431one, ‘ ‘ where intoxicating liquors are sold or furnished for * * * tippling or intemperance, to permit at, in, or about the doors, windows, or other openings of said prem-' ises, or in the interior of any house, shop, room, booth, arbor, cellar, or place where intoxicating liquors are sold or drank, any blind, screen, painted or frosted glass, shade, curtains, or other device to prevent a free and unobstructed view from the outside of said premises of the interior of the same.” The windows opening from the front room, where the bar was, were not obstructed. Between the front room and the second room, where liquor was drank at tables, was a permanent board partition, with a door in the center. It was claimed that the maintenance of the partition was a violation of the ordinance. In disposing of the matter the court said:

‘ ‘ General words following particular and specific words must ordinarily be confined to things of the same kind as those specified. Bish. Wr. Laws, §§ 245, 246; Hard. Const. Stat. 83; Maxw. Interp. Stat. 297; Denbow v. State, 18 Ohio, 11. Thus, in Reg. v. Cleworth, 4 Best & S. 927, Cockburn, C..J., said:

* ‘ ‘ There is a general expression, ‘ ‘ other person whatsoeverbut, according to a well-established rule in the construction of statutes, general terms following particular ones apply only to such persons or things as' are ejusdem generis with those comprehended in the language of the legislature.’

“True, this rule is not to be employed in any caseto defeat the plain intent of the general assembly (Woodworth v. State, 26 Ohio St. 196; Beg. v. Edmundson, 28 Law J. M. Oas. 213), but the rule seems to be strictly applicable here. And, according to a general rule equally applicable, such general words, following particular descriptive words, do not include such a partition for the further reason that it is of a more permanent and important character than the things specifically mentioned.”

Wé think it very clear, had the word “ partition ” been in the ordinance, the ruling would have been very different.

In Com. v. Barnes, supra, the respondent had been licensed by the licensing board “ to sell-, or expose or keep [432]*432for sale, until May 1, 1885, spirituous or intoxicating liquors to be drunk on the premises, to wit, in the front room and rear room, on the first floor, contiguous to street.” This building fronted on the street, and contained two rooms. The front room was separated from the rear room by a partition having two permanent openings the size of an ordinary door, which were unprovided with doors, and had never been screened. Looking through the window, the public had a complete view of the interior of the front room and of the business done there, and a view of a portion of the rear room through the permanent openings. The place where the liquors were kept was at all times within the view afforded by the window. The court held the respondent was not guilty, using the following language:

“We are of opinion that when a man is expressly licensed to sell intoxicating liquors ‘ in the front room and rear room ’ of a certain floor of a building, and is not required by the licensing board to remove the partition between the two rooms, that partition is not within the provisions of Pub. Stat. chap. 100, § 12, and Stat. 1882, chap.

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Related

Commonwealth v. Barnes
5 N.E. 252 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1886)
Commonwealth v. Stratton
22 N.E. 893 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1889)
Robison v. Haug
38 N.W. 668 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1888)
Courtright v. Common Council
55 N.W. 808 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1893)
People v. Kennedy
62 N.W. 1020 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1895)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 N.W. 992, 127 Mich. 428, 1901 Mich. LEXIS 1015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-white-mich-1901.