State v. Fourcade

45 La. Ann. 717
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 15, 1893
DocketNo. 11,148
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 45 La. Ann. 717 (State v. Fourcade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fourcade, 45 La. Ann. 717 (La. 1893).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Nicholls, O. J.

The defendant was charged with having on the 20th November, 1892, violated Ordinance 6596, O. S., by selling watered or adulterated milk in the city of New Orleans.

[720]*720Through his counsel he pleaded an exception or demurrer in which he declared that he was ready and willing to be tried under the laws of the State of Louisiana for the State offence charged against him as a municipal offence, but that he demurred to the pending municipal prosecution on the grounds—

1. That said city ordinance under which this prosecution is carried on is unconstitutional and illegal, as it conflicts with the Constitution of Louisiana, Arts. 5, 6, 7, 8, 92 and 155 — as it conflicts also with acts of Louisiana of 1880, No. 20, and of acts of 1882, No. 82, and other State law in pari materia.

2. That said city ordinances No. 6022 (1879), No. 6533 (1880), No. 6596 (1892), annexed to the exception, are in conflict with the federal Constitution, Amendment 14, Sec. 1, in this, that it deprives the accused as one of a class of retail milk vendors from the equal protection of the laws of the State; that it singles out one occupation (milk commerce) and submits it as a class to a special mode of prosecution before a recorder's court without the benefit of jury, while on the other hand all other classes or occupations are to be prosecuted for a State offence and to be tried by jury.

3. That the same act imputed to defendant under the laws both organic and ordinary of the State can not be made a double offence punishable twice, either simultaneously or otherwise; that the State laws cannot create such an anomaly, nor can the municipal ordinance of a creature of the State having no authority but that which is specially delegated to it by the State itself be an exception, but on the contrary the case is more objectionable.

4. That said city ordinance is ultra vires in so far as it is in conflict with acts of 1880, No. 20, and acts of 1882, and other State laws in pari materia, and also to the extent that it attempts to duplicate the action of the State with the new methods of prosecution, and that in face of these statutes punishing the adulteration of milk as a State offence the municipality can not constitutionally make it a municipal offence, and that said First Recorder’s Court is without jurisdiction in the premises.

5. That the accused can not thus be put twice in jeopardy for acts which, if true, would constitute the same offence for which he will be undergoing trial simultaneously in a State court and a municipal court. Art. 5, Const.

6. That by said municipal ordinance the accused is deprived of liberty and property without due process of law. Art. 6.

[721]*7217. That the municipal ordinance divests the accused of his vested rights of property and in merchandise without due process of law and without adequate compensation previously made (Art. 155), and makes it an offence for him not to give away his property at the bidding of a police officer.

8. That said ordinance establishing a test in the adulteration of milk is unconstitutional and illegal, in violation of the laws of the State of Louisiana, and more particularly of the act of 1882, No. 82.

This demurrer was overruled by the court.

Defendant then filed a second demurrer to the effect “that city ordinances No. 6022, A. S.; No. 6533, A. S., and No. 6596, A. S., are illegal, because the State of Louisiana, by acts of 1880, No. 20, and by acts of 1882, No. 82, and by other acts in pari materia, has taken and resumed exclusive control and jurisdiction for itself of all the matters of offence and punishment contained in said State legislation in antagonism with or on the same subject matter of these municipal ordinances; that the passage and effect of said statutes are to render illegal, null and void for the time being said ordinances, and that as long as said statutes are in force the said city ordinances are branded with illegality and unsusceptible of enforcement.”

The court overruled these objections.

On trial of the case on its merits the court found the accused guilty as charged and sentenced him to pay a fine of $25, and in default of payment to imprisonment in the parish prison for a term of thirty days.

He has appealed to this court.

The first point made in defendant’s brief is that by reason of his having in the lower court drawn in question the constitutionality and legality of the ordinance, for the violation of which he has been convicted, this case has been brought to us in all its details of law and fact, including the evidence taken on the trial on which — assuming the ordinance to be legal and constitutional — the recorder founded his judgment touching the guilt of the accused under it.

In support of that position he relies upon the phraseology of Art. 81 of the Constitution of 1879 and upon an expression found in the case of State vs. Dean (not yet reported) , where, referring to that article in connection with the cause then before us, we said: “The case must involve a question of the unconstitutionality or the illegality of the city ordinance under which the defendant and appellant [722]*722is being prosecuted, and hence the constitutionality of the fine or penalty which is imposed is drawn in question, otherwise the appeal is not examinable on either law or fact. If, however, the appeal presents such a question of constitutionality or legality of ordinance and penalty, the fact as well as the law are open to examination.”

Article SI of the Constitution declares that the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction shall extend “ to all cases in which the constitutionality of any tax, toll or impost whatever, or of any fine, forfeiture or penalty imposed by a municipal corporation shall be in contestation, whatever may be the amount thereof, and in such cases the appeal on the law and the fact shall be directly from the court in which the ease originated to the Supreme Court.”

Counsel of defendant is mistaken in giving to the sentence in the case of the State vs. Dean the scope he does. Only a few months prior to this we had said in State vs. Callao (Ante, p. 27), which was an appeal from a conviction under a city ordinance: “In such case our jurisdiction is confined to an examination and determination of the legality and constitutionality of the ordinance under which said fine and imprisonment were imposed. With the evidence in the case on which the recorder founded his judgment we have nothing whatever to do.”

The only object the court had in the Dean case was to show that as presented to it there was involved in it neither questions of law nor of fact under Article 81 of the Constitution. When it declared that should a case come before it involving a question of law or of fact, or of both under that article, it would deal with it, the court simply followed the wording of the article itself.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
45 La. Ann. 717, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fourcade-la-1893.