Thomas v. City of Eufaula

218 So. 2d 813, 44 Ala. App. 643, 1968 Ala. App. LEXIS 547
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 5, 1968
Docket4 Div. 583
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 218 So. 2d 813 (Thomas v. City of Eufaula) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. City of Eufaula, 218 So. 2d 813, 44 Ala. App. 643, 1968 Ala. App. LEXIS 547 (Ala. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

PRICE, Presiding Judge.

The appellant, Johnny L. Thomas, and forty-nine others, was convicted in the recorder’s court of the City of Eufaula, Alabama, for the offense of remaining at the place of an unlawful assembly after having [645]*645been warned to disperse. Each defendant was fined $100.00. Appeal was taken to the circuit court where they were tried by the court without a jury. They were found guilty and fined $25.00 each. The cases were consolidated for trial and it was stipulated that the appeals would be treated as one case.

The complaint filed in the circuit court, after the proper and necessary preliminary allegations, charged that defendant “did, on, to-wit, the 23rd day of August, 1965, wilfully and unlawfully remain present at the place of an unlawful assembly, after having been warned to disperse by a magistrate of said City of Eufaula, Alabama, contrary to and in violation of Section 581 The Code of the City of Eufaula, Alabama, (and more particularly Title 14, Sec. 412 Code of Alabama (1940) (Recomp. 1958) as received in said Section 581); that said Section 581 is as follows, ‘Sec. 581. State Misdemeanors. It shall be unlawful for any person to violate within the City or within the Police Jurisdiction thereof, any law of the State of Alabama, now or hereafter enacted, the violation of which is a misdemeanor under State Law;’ that said Section 581 is a part of the Code of the City of Eufaula, Alabama; was adopted as an ordinance of the said City of Eufaula, Alabama, by ordinance No. 1-52 which provides in substance that all Sections of a certain manuscript entitled ‘The Code of the City of Eufaula, Alabama,’ are adopted and enacted as Ordinances of the City of Eufaula, Alabama, on, to-wit, the 16th day of September, 1952; and that the penalty provided for violating the aforesaid Section 581 is provided by Section 4 of the aforesaid The Code of the City of Eufaula, etc.”

The punishment provided by Section 4, supra, is that a convicted person be fined not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, etc.

Section 412 of Title 14, Code of Alabama, 1940, reads: “Every person who shall remain present at the place of any unlawful assembly, after having been warned to disperse by a magistrate or pub-lie officer, unless as a public officer or at the request of any such officer, he is assisting in dispersing the same, or in protecting persons or property, or in arresting offenders, shall be guilty of a misdemean- or.”

In the Circuit Court defendant filed a motion to quash the “affidavit, warrant and/or complaint” on the grounds that they were void and charged no offense; that conviction would deprive defendant of rights guaranteed him by the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution of the United States.

The affidavit filed in the recorder’s court, in pertinent part, reads:

“Personally appeared before me, J. Gorman Houston, Jr., Acting Recorder of the City of Eufaula, Van Pelham who being duly sworn, and deposeth and says on oath that he has probable cause for believing and does believe that Johnny L. Thomas on the 23rd day of August, 1965, within the City limits, or within the police jurisdiction of Eufaula, was guilty of the offense of remaining present at the place of an unlawful assembly after having been warned to disperse contrary to the law and ordinances of Eufaula, Alabama
/s/ Van Pelham
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 23rd day of August, 1965.
/s/ J. Gorman Houston, Jr. Acting Recorder.”

An affidavit is sufficient “which designates the offense by name or some other phrase which in common parlance designates it.” Ex parte McElroy, 241 Ala. 554, 4 So.2d 437, and cases cited. The affidavit was not void. The motion to quash the affidavit was properly denied.

The denial of the motion to quash the complaint filed in the circuit court is not reviewable on appeal. White v. City [646]*646of Birmingham, 41 Ala.App. 181, 130 So.2d 231; Phifer v. City of Birmingham, 42 Ala.App. 282, 160 So.2d 898.

Demurrer was filed to the said “affidavit, warrant or complaint,” on the grounds, among others, that they were vague, indefinite and uncertain; that warrant of arrest was issued without sufficient facts alleged in the affidavit on which it is based to constitute an offense under an ordinance of the City of Eufaula. The demurrer was overruled.

The demurrer of defendant in the circuit court is to the complaint filed in said court, and not to the original affidavit. Nailer v. State, 18 Ala.App. 127, 90 So. 131.

The grounds of demurrer are general in nature and the trial court will not be put in error for overruling the grounds of demurrer directed to the complaint. Phifer v. City of Birmingham, 42 Ala.App. 282, 160 So.2d 898.

The evidence in the case comports with the findings of Judge Johnson in Cochran et al. v. City of Eufaula, Ala., 251 F.Supp. 981, concerning the actions of these appellants and others at the time of arrest. In denying a petition for removal of criminal prosecutions pending in the recorder’s court of Eufaula to the District Court of the United States, Judge Johnson said:

“Petitioners, some of whom were members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Southern Community Organization for Political Education, organized demonstrations in the City of Eufaula in order to seek redress of alleged grievances involving the denial of the equal opportunity to register to vote as well as to secure both additional registration days and evening registration.”

(footnote 3 points out that registration procedures are completely controlled by Alabama statutes and that municipalities have nothing to do with registering applicants to vote in Alabama).

“The demonstrations were also designed to stimulate interest among the Negro population in registering to vote.”

Here follows a delineation of events during marches and demonstrations occurring on August 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. The defendants here were arrested on August 23rd or 24th.

“On August 23, a permit was appiied for and apparently neither granted or denied. Nontheless, approximately 120-125 marched in the city streets to the courthouse. The march was loud and boisterous and generally disorderly. Both vehicular and pedestrian traffic were halted. On the steps of the courthouse, there were again speeches and songs. After nearly an hour, the mayor appeared and requested those assembled to leave. However, his repeated requests were matched with repeated refusals. Finally, after the courthouse business had again been brought to a standstill, the mayor declared an unlawful assembly.”

(Footnote 4 points out that the City of Eufaula has an ordinance adopting the State criminal statutes, and that an unlawful assembly is defined by Sec. 407, Title 14, Code of Alabama, which provides: If two or more persons meet together to commit a breach of the peace or to do any other unlawful act, each of them shall, on conviction, be punished, at the discretion of the jury, by fine and imprisonment in the county jail, or hard labor for the county, for not more than six months.)

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Related

Cottonreeder v. State
392 So. 2d 869 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1980)
Tolbert v. State
321 So. 2d 224 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1974)
Baines v. City of Birmingham
238 So. 2d 352 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1970)
Thomas v. City of Eufaula
218 So. 2d 817 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
218 So. 2d 813, 44 Ala. App. 643, 1968 Ala. App. LEXIS 547, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-city-of-eufaula-alactapp-1968.