Rieser v. Ward

236 S.W. 255, 193 Ky. 368, 1922 Ky. LEXIS 4
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJanuary 10, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 236 S.W. 255 (Rieser v. Ward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rieser v. Ward, 236 S.W. 255, 193 Ky. 368, 1922 Ky. LEXIS 4 (Ky. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Settle

Reversing.

As these two actions seeking the same relief against the one defendant, though each was brought by a separate [369]*369plaintiff, were together heard and determined in the court below, and the several appeals from the judgments of that court rendered in the cases have in like manner been considered by us, both will be disposed of in a single opinion. The two actions arose cut of the arrest and subsequent attempted prosecution in the police court of Oakdale, a city of the fifth class, of the appellees, O. P. Ward and Clifford Bowman (plaintiffs in the court below) under warrants duly issued by the appellant, Joseph Rieser (defendant in the court below), then and now judge of the police court of the city of Oak-dale, charging Ward with a violation of 'the provisions of chapter 90, Acts General Assembly, 1920, known as the “Kentucky Motor Vehicle” Statute; and Bowman with a violation of an ordinance of the city of Oakdale, passed by its council to conform to the provisions of that act, both the act and ordinance prescribing a penalty, by way of a fine, of not less than $10.00 nor more than $100.00 for running an automobile at a greater rate of speed than twenty miles an hour on streets in residential sections of Oakdale. The offense charged in each warrant was that the defendant named therein, in operating his automobile over a street or boulevard within the corporate boundaries and in a residential section of Oakdale, known as “Southern Parkway,” ran it at a rate of speed greater than twenty miles an hour, thereby exceeding the maximum limit of speed fixed both by the statute and ordinance, supra, for running such vehicle on a street through a residential section of such city.

Challenging the jurisdiction of the Oakdale police court, and of the appellant as judge thereof, to issue the warrants in question, or to try them for the offenses therein charged, the appellees respectively brought these actions, each in his petition seeking of the circuit court a writ of prohibition to prevent the appellant as judge of the Oakdale police court from subjecting him to prosecution or trial for the offense charged in the warrant against him.

The appellant filed a general demurrer and answer to each of the petitions, and the issues were completed by the filing of a reply to each answer. Upon the submission of the two causes for trial on the respective motions of the appellees for the writ of prohibition, and the consideration by the circuit court of the evidence offered by the parties, which included certain agreed facts contained in [370]*370a writing filed, and others shown by exhibits^ made a part of the record, it rendered judgment granting each of the appellees the writ of prohibition prayed in his petition. Appellant complains of the judgments, and by these appeals seek their reversal.

The judgments of the Gourt below -seem to have been based on the theory that, although that part of Southern Parkway upon which each of the appellees committed the offense charged in the warrant against him, actually lies within the corporate limits of the city of Oakdale, it nevertheless is legally a part of and within the corporate limits of the city of Louisville, by virtue of which and the provisions of a statute enacted by the legislature in 1890, and re-enacted by that body in 1893, the police court of the city of Louisville was given and has exclusive jurisdiction of the offenses in question and to try the appellees for committing them, hence the police court of Oak-dale does not possess and cannot exercise such jurisdiction.

It should be remarked that the following facts, material to a proper understanding of the controlling question presented by the appeals, do not appear to be disputed: (1) The offense with which each appellee is charged was committed on Southern Parkway, a boulevard 100 feet in width, passing through Oakdale, a city of the fifth class, and on a part of such boulevard lying wholly within its -corporate limits. (2) Southern Parkway is a boulevard, dedicated to the use of the public for travel, connecting Third street in the city of Louisville with the territory four miles south thereof known as Jacob or Iroquois Park. (3) The city of Louisville through its board of park commissioners, by purchase and deed of conveyance acquired in 1890, 1891, for use as a public park, the title to the territory now included in Jacob or Iroquois Park, and with it the driveway, now known as Southern Parkway, upon which it later constructed and has since maintained, at its own expense, the present boulevard. (4) When the territory embracing Jacob or Iroquois Park and the Southern Parkway was acquired by the city of Louisville, Oakdale, though laid off into lots and streets as shown by plat, was not an incorporated municipality, but the Southern Parkway was then a driveway designated on the plat as one of its -streets. (5) That while Oakdale has as a municipality exercised general control and police power over such [371]*371part of the Southern Parkway as lies within its corporate limits, it has been at no expense in maintaining it, except in the matter of providing electric arc lights at its intersection with certain other streets. (6) Oakdale was incorporated as a city in 1904, since which time it has maintained a municipal government such as appertains to a city of its class, including a police court, judge thereof, police force and such other officers and instrumentalities as are authorized by its charter. (7) That at the time of its incorporation Oakdale was given a fixed and definite boundary, which includes that part of Southern Parkway where each of the appellees is alleged to have committed the offense named in the warrant against him; and that the police court of Louisville has never issued a warrant or tried any one for an oifense committed on that part of Southern Parkway lying within the corporate limits of Oakdale.

But, however viewed, only such of the uncontroverted facts referred to as serve to show beyond doubt that the offense with which each of the appellees stands charged was committed within the cox^porate limits of the city of Oakdale are really material here, as the question of jurisdiction ixx issue is one of law to be determined by the applicatioxx of certain provisions of the Constitution and others of pertinent legislative enactment that have received judicial construction. The Constitution, section 109, declares:

“The judicial power of the Commonwealth, both as to matters of law axxd equity, shall be vested in the Senate when sitting as a court of impeachment, and one supreme court (to be styled the Court of Appeals) axid the courts established by this Constitutioxx. ’ ’ Section 135 provides:
“No courts save those provided for in this Constitution shall be established. ’ ’

The Constitution thexx provides for the establishment of the Court of Appeals, circuit courts, county courts, quarterly courts, justices’ courts, fiscal courts and police .courts. The police courts of the state, their jurisdiction and the territory in which the jurisdiction may be exercised are established and declared by section 143, Constitution, which provides:

“A police court may be established in each city axxd towxi ixx the state, with jurisdiction in cases of violation of muxxicipal ordinances and .bylaws occurring within the corporate limits of the city or town in which it is estab[372]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 S.W. 255, 193 Ky. 368, 1922 Ky. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rieser-v-ward-kyctapp-1922.