Rosencranz v. United States

155 F. 38, 83 C.C.A. 634, 2 Alaska Fed. 762, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4628
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 20, 1907
DocketNo. 1,404
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 155 F. 38 (Rosencranz v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rosencranz v. United States, 155 F. 38, 83 C.C.A. 634, 2 Alaska Fed. 762, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4628 (9th Cir. 1907).

Opinion

HUNT, District Judge.-

The first contention of the plaintiff in error is that the District Court of Alaska had no jurisdiction because by the act of Congress approved April 28, 1904 (33 Stat. 529-534 c. 1778), which was “An act to amend and codify the laws relating to municipal corporations in the District of Alaska,” Congress conferred upon municipal corporations in Alaska the power to prohibit gambling, houses of ill fame, and other misdemeanors, and to prescribe the punishment therefor, and that thereby it repealed section 127 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1899 (Carter’s Code), providing for the prosecution and punishment of such offenses in the District Courts of the territory. The particular clause of the act of" April 28, 1904, which is relied upon by plaintiff in error, reads as follows: “Sec. 8: That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are, to the extent of such inconsistency hereby repealed: and the provisions of this act shall apply to and govern all municipal corporations heretofore created in the District of Alaska.” 33 Stat. 534.

It is established by the plea filed by plaintiff in error that the city council of Nome did on August 1, 1904, pass an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to set up or keep a house of ill fame or bawdyhouse for the purpose of prostitution. The argument is that Congress intended to vest in the municipal authorities exclusive jurisdiction of the misdemeanors mentioned, and that the purpose was to prevent [765]*765a conflict between the federal and local authorities within the limits of incorporated.towns. To support this reasoning plaintiff in error cites decisions by the Supreme Courts of California and Missouri. But upon examination of the principal case relied upon, Green v. Superior Court, 78 Cal. 556, 21 P. 307, 541, we find that it is really inapplicable. That was an application for a writ of prohibition by Green, who was indicted in the superior court of the city and county of San Francisco for conspiracy. The writ was sought upon the ground that inasmuch as conspiracy was punished by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both, jurisdiction was exclusively in the police court of the city and county of San Francisco. The Constitution of the State of California provided that the superior courts should have jurisdiction in all criminal cases amounting to felony, and cases of misdemeanor not otherwise provided for. By further constitutional power the Legislature was authorized to fix the jurisdiction of inferior courts created by it in pursuance of the Constitution; and an act was passed which prescribed the jurisdiction of the police court of the city and county of San Francisco, wherein it was provided that the police court should have jurisdiction of misdemeanors of a certain class, which included conspiracy. The court held that the jurisdiction had become exclusive in the police court because the Constitution had plainly conferred jurisdiction in the superior courts only until otherwise provided for, and that, inasmuch as other provision has been made, the authority of the superior court ended, as it was meant it should end under the provisions of the Constitution. It will be understood, therefore, that the decision turned upon the terms of the Constitution of the state, which indicated an intention that there should be jurisdiction in the one court. In the course of the opinion, however, the court expressly recognized the rule as a well-established one that where jurisdiction is given either by Constitution or statute to two different courts, not indicating whether such jurisdiction shall be exclusive or concurrent, the same may be regarded as concurrent in both courts, although the case then before the court was not brought within the operation of the rule, for reasons already indicated. So far, therefore, as the opinion is pertinent at all to [766]*766questions of jurisdiction involved in the present case, it is but one of the many decisions which recognize .the principle that, when a court has jurisdiction of a crime, a statute which merely confers the same jurisdiction on another court does not deprive the former court of its jurisdiction, unless there is an express provision or clear implication to that effect. The consequence is that concurrent jurisdiction is conferred. 12 Cyc. p. 199; State v. Nichols, 27 R.I. 69, 60 A. 763; Moren v. Commonwealth, 116 Ky. 859, 76 S. W. 1090. This principle is thus stated by Cooley in his Constitutional Limitations, p. 279: “Nor will conferring a power upon a corporation to' pass by-laws and impose penalties for the regulation of any specified subject necessarily supersede the state law on the same subject; but the state law and the by-law may both stand together if not inconsistent. Indeed, an act may be a penal offense under the laws of the state, and further penalties under proper legislative authority be imposed for its commission by municipal laws. And the enforcement of the one would not preclude the enforcement of the other.”

Among the well-considered decisions in accord with Cooley’s text are: Ogden v. City of Madison, 111 Wis. 413, 87 N.W. 568, 55 L.R.A. 506, where it was held that where the keeping of a house of ill fame was made a misdemeanor by state law, so that one accused of doing so was entitled to a jury trial, it did not prevent a municipality from imposing a penalty for a like offense which could be enforced without a jury trial; Mclnerney v. City of Denver et al., 17 Colo. 302, 29 P. 516, where petitioner was convicted of keeping open a tippling house in violation of a city ordinance, and it was held that, although by general statute^ of the state the act was made a misdemeanor, yet the Legislature could delegate power to municipal corporations to adopt and enforce ordinances on matters of special local importance, even though general statutes exist relating to the same subject, and both could be given effect; Territory v. Guyott, 9 Mont. 46, 22 P. 134, where an act of the territory of Montana which made it a felony to sell liquor to an Indian was held to be constitutional, though Congress had passed a statute making the act a crime; and Town of Van Buren v. Wells, 53 Ark. 368, 14 S.W. 38, 22 Am.St.Rep. 214, where a conviction under a state law [767]*767for carrying concealed weapons was held not to be a bar to a prosecution for the same act under a city ordinance. It was also decided in U. S. v. Wells, 2 Cranch, C.C. 45, Fed.Cas.No. 16,662, that a by-law of Georgetown prescribing a penalty for keeping a public gaming table did not supersede nor repeal a general law of Maryland prescribing a penalty for keeping a faro table in a house occupied by a tavern keeper; and in U. S. v. Holly, 3 Cranch, C.C. 656, Fed.Cas.No.15,381, Judge Cranch ruled that it was not to be supposed that a power to pass by-laws to prohibit gambling, conferred upon the city of Washington, was to be regarded as an exclusive power bestowed. As we look at the question, Congress, in conferring power upon the municipalities of Alaska to prohibit houses of ill fame, gambling, disorderly conduct, and other offenses, and in conferring the further power upon the municipalities to define such offenses and to prescribe the punishment therefor, intended to bestow a larger measure of local self-government upon municipalities in respect to the regulation of certain matters usually brought under the police power as subjects of local municipal regulations; but in delegating such power we do not think that it was meant that Congress should surrender its own right of control over the subjects enumerated in the act of April 28, 1904, supra.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
155 F. 38, 83 C.C.A. 634, 2 Alaska Fed. 762, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 4628, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosencranz-v-united-states-ca9-1907.