State v. T. J. Mattox Cigar & Tobacco Co.

77 So. 755, 201 Ala. 229, 1918 Ala. LEXIS 248
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 24, 1918
Docket3 Div. 324.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 77 So. 755 (State v. T. J. Mattox Cigar & Tobacco Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. T. J. Mattox Cigar & Tobacco Co., 77 So. 755, 201 Ala. 229, 1918 Ala. LEXIS 248 (Ala. 1918).

Opinions

Tbis cause was submitted and considered under rule 46 (65 South, vii 1 ), and tbe opinion of tbe court was delivered by

Mr. Justice THOMAS.

In this case injunction is sought by tbe solicitor of Montgomery county to abate,, under tbe prohibition statutes, an unlawful drinking place. Tbe bill avers, among other things, that tbe respondent operates in tbe city of Montgomery a soft drink stand, “which is a common nuisance or unlawful drinking place, because said respondent at said places sells, keeps for sale, or maintains said place for tbe drinking of a beverage known as'‘Besto,’ which beverage is a substitute or device for beer.” Tbe player is for an injunction to restrain respondent from selling or keeping for sale said beverage known as “Besto” and from maintaining a place for tbe drinking of said beverage.

After answer and proof, tbe judge of tbe circuit court decreed that said beverage was “a nonintoxicating and nonalcoholic drink within tbe meaning of tbe state statute, and therefore in selling tbis beverage tbe respondent did not make bis place of business a public nuisance,” and dissolved tbe temporary injunction find dismissed the bill.

Tbe appeal is taken by -the state and tbe Attorney General; tbe assignment- of errors presenting for review this action of tbe trial court.

Respondent’s insistence is that those portions of the prohibition act of 1915 (Acts 1915, § 1, p. 1, and section 2%, p. 8) purporting to declare that “any other beverage which is tbe production of maltose or glucose, or in which maltose or glucose is a substantial ingredient,” is a prohibited liquor or beverage, are offensive to section 45 of the Constitution.

[1, 2] We find no merit in tbis contention. There is but one subject embraced in tbe title of either of tbe two acts in question, and that subject is clearly expressed. Tbe matter in question is germane to such respective titles. Chief Justice McOlellan declared tbe right of the Legislature, in tbe effort to promote temperance, to discourage tbe use or consumption of prohibited liquors and beverages, and to secure obedience to and prevent tbe evasion of the prohibition laws in connection with tbe prohibition of tbe manufacture, sale, or disposition of alcoholic, vinous, malt, fermented, or brewed, liquors or beverages, to enforce a like prohibition of certain- other liquors or beverages affording opportunity for evasions of such laws. He said: ' -

“It is common knowledge that most malt liquors are intoxicating and harmful when used excessively, and are capable of excessive use as a beverage. Tbe sale of all such, of course, the Legislature has the power to prohibit. But, if the prohibition should in terms go only to the sale of intoxicating malt liquors, there would be left open such opportunities for evasions of the law, and there would arise such difficulties of proof, as that the law could not be effectively executed; and the lawmakers having the undoubted power to prohibit and to prevent the sale of intoxicating malt liquors, and to enact to that end a law which can be executed so as to secure it, and finding that this cannot be accomplished without extending the prohibition to all malt liquors, whether intoxicating or not, such extension, necessary to prevent the sale of intoxicants, is as essentially the proper exercise of the police power as the inhibition with *230 reference to intoxicants. Our prohibition statutes very generally have provisions which are merely intended to be ancillary to, and to prevent evasions of, or to avoid difficulties of proof in respect of, their main purpose, to prevent the sale of intoxicants.” Feibelman v. State, 130 Ala. 122, 124, 125, 30 South. 384, 385.

In State ex rel. Black v. Southern Express Co., 200 Ala. 31, 75 South. 343, Mr. Justice McClellan pertinently observes:

“The traffic in intoxicants in this state has been prohibited, to the legislatively avowed end of promoting temperance and _ of preventing drunkenness. * * * In addition, valid ancillary prohibitions and regulations, reasonably conceived to be in aid of the stated major purposes entertained by the lawmakers, have been enacted.”

This declared right of the Legislature to reasonably prohibit the manufacture, sale, or other disposition of other liquors, whether intoxicating or not, in connection with the prohibited liquors, has been reaffirmed in Dinkins v. State, 149 Ala. 49, 43 South. 114; Lambie v. State, 151 Ala. 86, 91, 44 South. 51; Marks v. State, 159 Ala. 71, 80, 48 South. 864, 133 Am. St. Rep. 20; Ex parte Woodward, 181 Ala. 97, 106, 61 South. 295; State ex rel. Black v. Delaye, 193 Ala. 500, 519, 520, 68 South. 993, L. R. A. 1915E, 640; Southern Express Co. v. Whittle, 194 Ala. 406, 422, 423, 69 South. 652, L. R. A. 19160, 278; State ex rel. Hugo L. Black v. Southern Express Co., 75 South. 343; 2 L. & N. R. R. Co. v. State (App.) 76 South. 505, 512; Theatrical Club v. State, 74 South. 969; 3 Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, 8 Sup. Ct. 273, 31 L. Ed. 205; Purity Extract Co. v. Lynch, 226 U. S. 192, 33 Sup. Ct. 44, 57 L. Ed. 184; Wilson v. New, 243 U. S. 332, 346, 37 Sup. Ct. 298, 61 L. Ed. 755, L. R. A. 1917E, 938; James Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Maryland Railway Co., 242 U. S. 311, 37 Sup. Ct. 180, 61 L. Ed. 326, L. R. A. 1917B, 1218, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 845; Butterfield v. United States, 241 Fed. 556, 154 C. C. A. 332; Southern Pacific v. Jensen, 244 U. S. 205, 217, 37 Sup. Ct. 524, 61 L. Ed. 1086. Such subsequent rulings indicate that the decision in Elder v. State, 162 Ala. 41, 50 South. 370, has not controlling effect as to the statute now under consideration.

The trial court rested the decision on the fact that the beverage known as “Besto” is “a nonintoxicating and nonalcoholic drink within-the meaning of the statute,” and thus overlooked the reasonable ancillary prohibitions and regulations of the statutes adopted in aid of the major purpose of the prohibition laws. State ex rel. Black v. Southern Express Co., supra; Southern Express Co. v. Whittle, supra; Feibelman v. State, supra.

[3] Did, then, the beverage in question in fact fall within the reasonable prohibitions of the statute? Gen. Acts 1915, § 1, p. 1, and section 21/2, p. 8, and section 31, p. 31. The presumption in favor of the ruling of the lower court declared to obtain in Andrews v. Grey, 74 South. 62, 4 has no application, where the testimony is taken before a commissioner appointed by the court, and not in open court, before the judge rendering the decision.

[4] A deputy sheriff of the county testified that he bought of respondent a bottle of this beverage and drank the same; that it looked, tasted, and smelled like beer.

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Bluebook (online)
77 So. 755, 201 Ala. 229, 1918 Ala. LEXIS 248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-t-j-mattox-cigar-tobacco-co-ala-1918.