Tarantina v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad

98 N.E. 999, 254 Ill. 624
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1912
Docket5. Same&emdash;regulation of right to drink liquor is within the police power of the Slate. The right to drink intoxicating liquor is
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 98 N.E. 999 (Tarantina v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tarantina v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 98 N.E. 999, 254 Ill. 624 (Ill. 1912).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Dunn

delivered the opinion of the court:

The only question in this case is the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly approyed May 25, 1911, entitled “An act to provide for the punishment of any person who drinks any intoxicating liquor, or who is intoxicated, in or upon railroad passenger cars in use for the transportation of passengers, or in or about any railroad station or platform, and for conductors to make arrests therefor.” (Laws of 1911, p. 462.) The action was case, for an assault and battery alleged to have been committed upon the plaintiff while a passenger on defendant’s train, in St. Clair county. The pleas were, in substance, that the plaintiff, while a passenger in a day coach on defendant’s train, drank intoxicating liquor, and that the conductor, by virtue of the authority conferred on him by the statute in question, acting for the State of Illinois and not for the defendant, arrested the plaintiff without process, using no more force than was necessary, and that such arrest constituted the assault complained of. There were several pleas, not differing materially. The plaintiff’s demurrer to the pleas was overruled, and upon her election to stand by her demurrer the court rendered judgment that the defendant go without day and recover its costs.

The particular constitutional provisions which this act is supposed to violate are sections 2, 6, 9 and 11 of article 2, sections 13 and 22 of article 4, and sections 24 and 25 of article 5. The act is as follows :

“Sec. i. That any person who shall drink' any intoxicating liquor, or who shall be intoxicated, in or upon any railroad smoking car, parlor car, day coach, interurban car or caboose car, in use for the transportation of passengers, or in or about any railroad station or platform, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars. ($25), nor more than one hundred dollars ($100), or imprisoned in the county jail for not less than thirty (30) days, nor more than one hundred (100) days, or both such fine and imprisonment.
“Sec. 2. Every railroad conductor, while on duty, is hereby authorized and empowered to exercise in any county of this State, for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of this act, all the common law and statutory powers conferred upon sheriffs and it is hereby made the duty of all such conductors to enforce the preceding section of this act, and to arrest without process any person who violates any provision thereof, and in so doing they shall be held to be acting for the State and not as employees of the company. Any person or persons so arrested shall be delivered by such conductor to some judge, justice of the peace, sheriff, constable, or police officer at some station or place within the county in which the offense was committed, for trial, according to law: Provided, that if the car on which such arrest is made does not stop within the county within which such offense was committed, then such conductor shall deliver the person so arrested to some sheriff, constable or police officer of the county wherein such car shall first stop after such arrest, who shall deliver the person so arrested to some judge or justice of the peace of the county in which the offense was committed, for trial.
“Sec. 3. Any such railroad conductor, who shall refuse or fail to comply with section 2 of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than ten dollars ($10) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25.)
“Sec. 4. The several railroad companies in.this State shall, without unnecessary delay, cause printed copies of the three preceding sections of this act to be kept posted in conspicuous places at all their stations along their lines of railroad in this.State. Every railroad company that shall neglect to post, and keep posted, such notices as required by this section, shall for each offense, forfeit, the sum of fifty dollars ($50), to be recovered in an action of debt, in the name of the People of the State of Illinois.”

The objections to the act begin with the title, which is said to be misleading, incongruous and deceptive, and not to express the subject of the act, which is also said to embrace more than one subject. The object of the title is, not to state the reasons for the passage of the act or to give an index as to its contents, but to give a general statement of the subject matter of the act. Such general statement will be sufficient to include all provisions of an act having a reasonable connection with the subject matter mentioned and a reasonable tendency to accomplish the purpose of the act. (Town of Manchester v. People, 178 Ill. 285 ; Meul v. People, 198 id. 258; People v. McBride, 234 id. 146; People v. Sayer, 246 id. 382; People v. Huff, 249 id. 164.) The subject matter of this act is the use of intoxicating liquor upon railroads. The object to be accomplished was the preservation of good order in railroad trains and about railroad stations. All the provisions of the act concern, this subject matter and tend to accomplish this result. The prohibition of intoxicated persons on certain cars and at stations and platforms, and the provisions for the prompt arrest of offenders by conferring certain powers on conductors, are certainly reasonably calculated to prevent the drinking of intoxicating liquors at such places, and therefore come within the title of the act whether they are subject to any other constitutional objection or not. It is not a valid objection that the title refers to all railroad passenger cars in use for the transportation of passengers while the body of the act includes only certain kinds of passenger cars. The title is broad enough to include the terms of the act, and there is no rule which requires the act to cover every part of the subject which might come within the title.

It is insisted that the act is special in discriminating between passengers riding in day coaches or other cars of the kind mentioned in the act, and those riding in sleeping cars, dining cars and buffet cars, and in "regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace, police magistrates and constables. The evils arising from intoxication on railroad trains and the disorderly or riotous conduct growing out of such intoxication, together with the means necessary or best adapted for the remedy of these, were subjects for the consideration of the legislature. Dining cars and buffet cars are for the refreshment of travelers, and the sale and use of food and drink in them, as well as the conduct of the passengers in such cars, may be controlled by regulations of the railroad companies, which have the power to prevent drinking intoxicating liquor in such cars. Sleeping cars are usually occupied by persons traveling greater distances than those occupying other cars. Whether it is among local passengers that the evil to be suppressed is most likely to arise, and whether the different conditions with reference to this subject prevailing on the different kinds of cars required different regulations, were questions for the determination of the legislature, and we are not able to say that there is no reasonable basis for the distinction found in the act.

There is no special or local regulation of the duties of justices of the peace or constables^ The same duties are imposed upon every justice of the peace, police magistrate or constable in the State where the circumstances provided for in the act arise.

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Bluebook (online)
98 N.E. 999, 254 Ill. 624, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tarantina-v-louisville-nashville-railroad-ill-1912.