State ex rel Wyckoff v. Ross

228 P. 636, 31 Wyo. 500, 1924 Wyo. LEXIS 39
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 26, 1924
DocketNo. 1267
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 228 P. 636 (State ex rel Wyckoff v. Ross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel Wyckoff v. Ross, 228 P. 636, 31 Wyo. 500, 1924 Wyo. LEXIS 39 (Wyo. 1924).

Opinion

Kimbaul, Justice.

Chapter 117 of the Session Laws of Wyoming for 1921, entitled “An Act in regard to Intoxicating Liquor, prohibiting the unlawful possession, manufacture and sale thereof within the State of Wyoming, repealing Chapter 209 of Wyoming Compiled Statutes, 1920, and carrying into effect so far as the State of Wyoming is concerned the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ’ ’ provides, by section 36, that:

“It shall be the duty of every prosecuting attorney in this State to prosecute by complaint, information or indictment in courts of competent jurisdiction all violations of this Act in the manner now provided by law for the prosecution of criminal offenses under the general statutes of this State and in the manner as herein defined. The Governor shall have power after notice and hearing to remove from office any officer in the State who shall wilfully fail, neglect or refuse to perform any of the duties imposed upon him by this Act or who shall be guilty of intoxication or drunkenness. Proceedings for the removal of any such officer may be commenced either by the [508]*508Governor on bis own motion or on written complaint of any citizen of tbe State, filed with the Governor. Written notice of the time and place for the hearing of such charges together with a statement or copy of the charges filed against him shall be personally served upon such officer at least ten days before the day set for such hearing. ’ ’

Under this section proceedings were instituted before the Governor for the removal of the relator, the county and prosecuting attorney of Hot Springs County. The amended and supplemental complaint filed with the Governor charges that the relator has been guilty of intoxication and drunkenness on some fourteen stated dates between March 26, 1923 and June 7, 1924. It is also charged that he has at times wilfully failed and refused to perform the duties imposed upon him by the said act, and has at frequent intervals by intoxication incapacitated himself from carrying on the work of county and prosecuting attorney.

Pursuant to the statute, the relator was given written notice of the time and place of the hearing of the charges of which he was furnished a copy. A few days before the day set for the hearing, the relator presented to the Judge of the District Court of Laramie County a petition for a writ of prohibition to prevent the Governor from proceeding further in the matter. The petition for prohibition challenged the constitutionality of section 36 of Chapter 117, supra, on several grounds, and alleged that objections to the jurisdiction of the Governor, based on such grounds, had been been overruled by the Governor. Upon the presentation of the petition to the district judge, he found that there were involved important and difficult constitutional quesions which were reserved and submitted for our decision.

[509]*509One of the questions is whether section 36 is in violation of Section 24 of Article III of the State Constitution, which provides:

“No bill, except general appropraition bills and bills for the codification and general revision of the laws, shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title; but if any subject is embraced in any act which is not expressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be so expressed.”

It is contended that the act contains at least two subjects, one, the prevention of the unlawful possession, manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor, the other, the removal of officers as provided in section 36, and that the latter subject is not expressed in the title. In support of this contention it is argued that section 36 provides for the removal of any state officer who is guilty of intoxication or drunkeness. It may be conceded that the removal of officers who have no duties to perform under the act would be foreign to the subject expressed in the title, and that if the act must be given that meaning, it is void at least to that extent. The sentence of section 36 stating that: “The Governor shall have power * * * to remove from office any officer in the state who shall wilfully fail, neglect or refuse to perform any of the duties im-. posed upon him by this act or who shall be guilty of intoxication or drunkenness,” is grammatically susceptible of the construction contended for. It does not follow, however, that that is the necessary, or the proper, construction. Every statute should be read in the light of the constitution, and broad and general language may often be limited to those matters within the constitutional powers of the legislature. McCullough v. Virginia, 172 U. S. 102, 112; 19 Sup. Ct. 134, 43 L. ed. 382; State v. Smiley, 65 Kan. 240; 69 Pac. 199, 67 L. R. A. 903; Ex [510]*510Parte Gale, 14 Ida. 766, 95 Pac. 679. The phrase, “any officer in the state,” is broad and general enough to include even those officers who, under the constitution, are removable from office by impeachment only; but, under the principle just stated, reading the statute in the light of the constitution, we do not hesitate to say that the legislature did not intend to make any provision for the removal of impeachable officers. It would not, then, include “all officers in the state.” And when the context and the purpose of the act are considered, there would seem good reason for further restricting the meaning of the phrase in question. The attention of the legislature was directed to the subject of suppressing the unlawful manufacture, sale, etc. of intoxicating liquors. The effectiveness of the law would have to depend largely on the faithfulness and diligence of the officers charged with its enforcement, and it was deemed proper to provide for removal by the Governor of those officers who refused or neglected to perform the duties imposed upon them by the act. This provision, of course, would apply to only those officers who have duties to perform under the act, and we believe that the further provision in the same sentence for the removal of officers guilty of intoxication or drunkenness must be restricted in its meaning to the same class of officers, and as permitting their removal if by intoxication and drunkenness they render themselves unfit or unable to perform those duties. This we believe to be the real meaning of the language in question when considered with a proper regard for the subject-matter and the object sought to be accomplished. As thus interpreted, we believe the inclusion in the act of the provision for removal of such officers is not contrary to the constitutional requirement that every act shall contain but one subject which shall be clearly expressed in the title. This court has long recognized the principle that this section of the constitution, though mandatory, must be liberally and reasonably construed. In the case In re [511]*511Fourth Judicial District, 4 Wyo. 133, 142, 32 Pac. 850, the court, quotes the language of Judge Cooley to the effect that the generality of the title is no objection to it, so long as it is not made a cover to legislation incongruous in itself, and which by no fair intendment can be considered as having a necessary and fair connection. Cooley on Const. Lim. (7th Ed.) p. 206. In the same paragraph of that text (p.

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Bluebook (online)
228 P. 636, 31 Wyo. 500, 1924 Wyo. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-wyckoff-v-ross-wyo-1924.