State v. Baker

92 P. 1076, 50 Or. 381, 1907 Ore. LEXIS 217
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 92 P. 1076 (State v. Baker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Baker, 92 P. 1076, 50 Or. 381, 1907 Ore. LEXIS 217 (Or. 1907).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Bean.

The defendants were tried and convicted of the crime of permitting Pauline Wyman, a female under the age of 21 years, to remain in and about a saloon kept by them in the City of Portland. The prosecution is based upon an act of the legislature of 1905 (Gen. Laws 1905, pp. 327, 328), Section 1 of which provides as follows:

“If any owner or proprietor of any saloon or other place where intoxicating liquor is kept for sale at retail, or any servant or employee, or agent of such owner or proprietor, shall suffer or permit any female under the age of 21 years to remain in or about such saloon, or any jdaee where intoxicating liquor [383]*383is kept for sale at retail, or any box or room used in connection with such saloon, or place in which intoxicating liquor is served, or if an}r person sell or give to any female under the age of 21 years, in any saloon or place where intoxicating liquor is kept for sale at retail, any intoxicating liquor, such person, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $100, or more than $1,000, or be imprisoned in the county jail not less than three months or more than one year; provided, however, that the provisions of this act shall not apply to any female accompanied by her husband or parent, or to any open and public restaurant or dining-room.”

The evidence for the state showed that at the time of the commission of the alleged offense defendants were conducting a saloon in the City of Portland, where intoxicating liquors were sold at retail. In connection with their saloon they had a room adjoining and opening out of the barroom provided with tables and chairs, where liquors and luncheons, when ordered, were served to their customers. There were two entrances to the saloon, one from Third Street into the barroom proper, and the other from Taylor Street into the adjoining room. About 10 o’clock on the evening of April 28, 1906, Pauline Wyman and another young woman, each under the age of 21 years, accompanied by a man, went into the room adjoining the barroom, where they remained for about ten minutes and were served with beer by defendant Baker. At the close of the state’s case,’ the defendants’ counsel moved the court to direct a verdict of not guilty upon the grounds (1) that the court was without jurisdiction; (2) that the proof did not show the commission of a crime; and (3) that the act under which the prosecution was had is unconstitutional and void. The overruling of this motion is assigned as error.

1. The first point made is without merit. By its charter the City of Portland is authorized to exercise within the limits of the city, police powers to the same extent as the State has or could exercise such powers, and the right to regulate all bartenders, saloon keepers and dealers in spirituous, fermented, vinous or malt liquors, and the barrooms, drinking shops or places where such liquors are kept or sold: Laws 1903, p. 32. [384]*384There are no words of exclusion or restriction in the charter concerning the exercise of the power thus conferred, and therefore it does not repeal or affect the general laws of the state on the same subject or prevent a prosecution for a violation thereof within the limits of the municipality: 14 Am. & Eng. Ency. 605; State v. Ayers, 49 Or. 61 (10 L. R. A., N. S., 992: 88 Pac. 653); State v. Bergman, 6 Or. 341; State v. Sly, 4 Or. 277; Burchard v. State, 2 Or. 78.

2. The clause of the charter that no provision of the law concerning the sale or disposition of liquors in Multnomah County shall apply to the City of Portland, has no reference to legislation under the police powers regulating and controlling the places where, or persons by whom, such liquors are sold.

3. The second point is that the evidence for the state shows that the prosecutrix' was not permitted by defendants to remain in the saloon, but in a room adjoining. Speaking generally, a saloon is a building or place where liquors are kept for sale at retail, and may include more than one room: 7 Adjudged Words & Phrases, 6310. The room in which the crime is alleged to have been committed was used by defendants in connection with their saloon business, and was, therefore, for the jrarpose of this prosecution, a part of the saloon.

4. Several objections are made against the constitutionality of the law under which the prosecution is maintained. First, it is said that it is a special law for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, because it does not apply to open and public restaurants or dining rooms. But this is a classification the state, in the exercise of its police powers, could lawfully make. The right to engage in the sale of intoxicating liquors is not one of the privileges guaranteed to the citizen by the state or federal constitution. It is a business attended with danger, to the morals of the community, and may, therefore, be entirely prohibited or permitted by the state under such conditions or limitations as in the judgment of the lawmaking power will limit or minimize the evils arising therefrom: Sandys v. Williams, 46 Or. 327 (80 Pac. 642); Crowley v. Christensen, 137 U. S. 86 (11 Sup. Ct. 13: 34 L. Ed. 620). And, so long as [385]*385the law operates alike upon all persons similarly situated, it is not subject to the objections of special or class legislation: State v. Muller, 48 Or. 252 (85 Pac. 855); In re Oberg, 21 Or. 406 (28 Pac. 130: 14 L. R. A. 577); State v. Randolph, 23 Or. 74 (31 Pac. 201: 17 L. R. A. 470: 37 Am. St. Rep. 655).

5. Again, the contention is made that the law is invalid because it applies to all females under the age of 21 years, while by the general law a female is deemed to have arrived at majority at the age of1 18, and thereafter to have control of her own actions and business, and to have all the rights and be subject to all the liabilities of a citizen of full age: B. & C. Comp. § 5330. The act in question is not to establish or change the age of majority of females, but for the purpose of promoting good morals and sound policy. Its object is to suppress the evils incident to the frequenting of saloons by women. The vicious tendency of the mingling of men and women in saloons, or places where intoxicating liquors are sold, is regarded as harmful to good morals, and therefore a law which prohibits the licensing of a female to engage in the business of retailing intoxicating liquors, or making it an offense to employ a female to serve liquors in a saloon, or to permit a female to enter a saloon and there be served with liquors, is not unconstitutional: Blair v. Kilpatrick, 40 Ind. 315; Welsh v. State, 126 Ind. 71 (25 N. E. 883: 9 L. R. A. 664); Bergman v. Cleveland, 39 Ohio St. 651; State v. Considine, 16 Wash. 358 (47 Pac. 755); In re Considine (C. C.), 83 Fed. 157; Adams v. Cronin, 29 Colo. 488 (69 Pac. 590: 63 L. R. A. 61). The liberties or rights of every citizen are subject to such limitations in their enjoyment as will prevent them from being dangerous or harmful to the body politic, and there is no objection to the law in question that it applies to women of lawful age.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 P. 1076, 50 Or. 381, 1907 Ore. LEXIS 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-baker-or-1907.