Redway v. Moore

29 P. 104, 3 Idaho 312, 1892 Ida. LEXIS 15
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 18, 1892
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 29 P. 104 (Redway v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Redway v. Moore, 29 P. 104, 3 Idaho 312, 1892 Ida. LEXIS 15 (Idaho 1892).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, C. J.

This is an action brought by the appellants to restrain the respondent for maintaining a house of prostitution, and to recover $1,000 damages. The complaint is as follows, to wit:

“[Title of Court and Cause.]
“The plaintiffs above named complain of the defendant, and allege: 1. That plaintiffs are, and at the time of the commission of the grievances hereinafter mentioned were, lawfully seised' of an estate in fee in and to real property adjacent to and fronting upon Main street, in Boise City, Idaho, and upon Warm Springs avenue, the same "being said Main street, extending from the easterly boundary of said Boise City eastward, which said real property, so owned by the plaintiffs, lies 'and is located in the immediate vicinity of the property hereinafter described as being occupied and maintained by the defendant, Jenny Moore. 2. That said real property, so owned by plaintiffs, as aforesaid, is situated in the residence portion of Boise City, and in a tract of land adjacent thereto, occupied for residence purposes only, and is suitable and valuable for residence purposes only. 3. That the defendant was also at the time of the •commission of said grievances, as hereinafter stated, and still is, the owner and possessed of certain other premises in the vicinity of the premises owned by the plaintiffs, as hereinbefore alleged. The said premises so owned and occupied by said defendant being described as follows, to wit: ‘Beginning at a point south twenty-eight degrees, fifty-one minutes east, two hundred and twenty-eight feet eight inches, and south, seventy-eight degrees, thirty minutes east, one hundred and eighty-five feet six inches, and south eleven degrees, thirty minutes west, to north bank of that certain ditch known as “Valley ditch” — ■ all the said and above angles being recorded and measured from [315]*315the quarter section comer between sections 10, 11, and the point now arrived at, on the bank of the ditch, being the place of beginning; thence north, eleven degrees, thirty minutes east, back over same course and distance to same point arrived at by the above said measurement of south seventy-eight degrees, thirty minutes east, running one hundred and eighty-five feet and six inches; thence north, seventy-eight degrees, thirty minutes west, twenty-five feet; thence south, eleven degrees, thirty minutes west, to north bank of said Valley ditch; thence northeast along north bank of said ditch, with all its meanderings, to real place of beginning.’ 4. That on or about the third day of October, 1891, the said defendant completed the erection upon said last above described premises of a building, and immediately occupied, and has ever since, and does now, occupy, said building as a house of prostitution, and for the purpose of assignation and prostitution, and does therein maintain and carry on said immoral practices, and maintain said house as a public resort for immoral, lewd and obscene purposes, and as a house of prostitution and assignation; and by reason thereof the real property owned by these plaintiffs as aforesaid is rendered unfit and unsuitable and unsalable as residence property, and thereby greatly depreciated and lessened in value, to plaintiffs’ damage, and each of them, in the sum of $1,000. Wherefore the plaintiffs pray judgment: 1. That the defendant be restrained by injunction from maintaining or using said premises and the buildings thereon as a house of prostitution or other immoral purposes, to the injury of the plaintiffs or either of them, or permitting the same to be so used; 2. That the plaintiffs recover from the defendant the sum of $1,000 damages, and costs of suit.”

On the date the complaint was filed, the appellants filed seven affidavits, and made application to the judge at chambers for a temporary injunction to restrain the defendant from maintaining a house of prostitution on the premises described in the complaint until the final determination of this action. Upon the complaint and said affidavits the court granted a temporary injunction. On November 10, 1891, the defendant demurred to the complaint, and thereafter moved to dissolve the injunction. The motion to dissolve the injunction was heard upon [316]*316the complaint, the seven affidavits above referred to, and the affidavit of the defendant. The motion was sustained by the court, and the injunction dissolved, from which order this appeal was taken. The appellants specify-two errors, claimed to have been made by the court below, and demand a reversal of the order dissolving said injunction. The specification of errors is as follows: 1. "That the court erred in decreeing a dissolution of the injunction upon the papers filed in the case at the time such decree of dissolution was entered”; 2. "That the court erred in holding that an equity action would not lie, and that the plaintiffs had an adequate remedy at law in a criminal prosecution; that the court erred in dissolving the injunction prior to the filing of an answer upon the part of the defendant, tendering an issue upon the merits of this case.”

We will first consider the second error assigned. The record does not contain the reasons given by the court below for dissolving the injunction, but counsel for appellants maintained before this court that the court below, in its decision upon said motion, held that the order granting the injunction should be vacated and set aside on the ground "that the acts complained of were criminal in their nature, and that the penal statutes afforded an adequate remedy.” It is admitted that the acts charged constitute a public nuisance — a crime. In the case of Yolo Co. v. City of Sacramento, 36 Cal. 193 (a ease decided under a statute identical with our own), the court says: "The point that the remedy is by indictment only is also untenable; for a public nuisance may be a private nuisance, and, if so, the person injured thereby may have his action. If the nuisance only affects the plaintiff in common with the public at large, it cannot have its action; but if, in addition, it obstructs it in the. free use and enjoyment of its private property, it is so far a private nuisance also, and it may have its private action.” That was a suit to abate a nuisance, which nuisance was a crime. Section 3631 of the Revised Statutes of Idaho of 1887 declares as follows: “The remedies against a public nuisance are: 1. Indictment; 2. A civil action; or 3. Abatement.” This section makes no distinctions as to the remedy to abate nuisances which are a crime per se and those which are not. Section [317]*3173633 of the Revised Statutes of Idaho declares as follows: “A private person may maintain an action for a public nuisance if it is specially injurious to himself, but not otherwise.” Duller the provision of that section a private person may have his action to abate or restrain the continuance of a public nuisance, provided he alleges and shows that such nuisance is specially Injurious to himself. (See Yolo Co. v. City of Sacramento, supra; 2 Story’s Equity Jurisprudence, sec. 923 et seq.) In Minke v. Hopeman, 87 Ill. 450, 29 Am. Rep. 63, the court says: "It would be a reproach upon the powers of a court of equity to hold the complainant was bound to endure the wrongs of the defendant until a jury should pass upon the facts in an action at law.” We do not think it will be seriously contended that a person may maintain a house of prostitution, and in the midst of a district populated by respectable people, and that a court of equity is powerless to grant relief upon a proper showing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
29 P. 104, 3 Idaho 312, 1892 Ida. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/redway-v-moore-idaho-1892.