United States v. Lockhart

33 F.2d 597, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1333
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedJune 19, 1929
DocketNo. 292
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 33 F.2d 597 (United States v. Lockhart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Lockhart, 33 F.2d 597, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1333 (D. Neb. 1929).

Opinion

MUNGER, District Judge.

The questions presented in this case arise upon a motion of the defendant to dismiss the plaintiff’s bill. The hill alleges, in substance, that the defendant within less than 60 days before the filing of the hill, at a residence building in Otoe county, Neb., unlawfully, and without authorization by a written permit from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, accepted an order for the sale and delivery of intoxicating liquor, unlawfully carried the liquor around on Ms person, with intent to effect a sale of the liquor, and unlawfully sold the liquor. It is alleged that the liquor was fit for beverage purposes, and contained more than one-half of one per cent, of alcohol by volume. The prayer of the bill is for an injunction restraining the defendant from keeping or carrying around on his person or in a veMcle or other conveyance, or leaving in ■ a place for another to secure, any intoxicating liquor, with intent to effect a sale thereof, and restraining the defendant from soliciting, taking, or accepting orders for the sale of such liquor.

Section 23 of title 2 of the National Prohibition Act (27 U. S. Code, § 35 [27 USCA § 35]), contains the following provisions:

“That any person who shall, with intent to effect a sale of liquor, by himself, his employee, servant, or agent, for himself or any person, company or corporation, keep or carry around on Ms person or in a veMcle, or other conveyance whatever, or leave in [598]*598a place for another to seeure, any liquor, or who shall travel to solicit, or solicit, or take, or accept orders for the sale, shipment, or delivery of liquor in violation of this title is guilty of a nuisance and may be restrained by injunction, temporary and permanent, from doing or continuing to do any of said acts or things.
“In such proceedings it shall not be necessary to show any intention on the part of the accused to continue such violations if the action is brought within sixty days following any such violation of the law.”

Somewhat in contrast with this section, sections 21 and 22 (27 USCA §§ 33, 34) immediately preceding declare that any room, house, building, boat, vehicle, structure, or place where intoxicating liquor is manufactured, sold, kept, or bartered in violation of title 2 is declared to be a common nuisance, make it a crime for any person to maintain such a nuisance, provide an action in equity may be brought in the name of the United States to enjoin the nuisance, that an injunction may issue against the manufacture, sale, barter, or storage of liquor in such places, and provide that the court may order the structure or place to be closed for one year.

The defendant claims that the plaintiff’s bill is defective because it does not allege that the defendant intends to continue in unlawful acts such as the bill alleges that he has committed. It is true that many decisions have held that in a proceeding under sections 21 and 22 to enjoin the use of one of the places described in these sections, it should appear that the defendant had a purpose of continuing in violation of the National Prohibition Act. But the express provisions of section 23 make it unneeessay to show any intention of the defendant to continue in violations, when the suit is brought, as was done in this ease, within 60 days following an alleged violation of the law, and if it is unnecessary to show such intention, it is unnecessary to allege it.

It is also urged that the bill should allege that the United States will suffer irreparable injury if the injunction is not granted. In the absence of a statute the plaintiff seeking an injunction should show that a refusal of an injunction would cause him an irreparable injury, but the power to enjoin acts declared to be a nuisance by sections 21, 22, and 23 of the National Prohibition Act in a suit brought by the United, States is conferred by the terms of those sections and is not conditioned by proof of an injury to the United States. A similar contention was made in United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association, 166 U. S. 290, 342, 17 S. Ct. 540 (41 L. Ed. 1007), in a suit brought under the Sherman AntiTrust Act (15 USCA §§ 1-7, 15) for an injunction. The court said: “It is also argued that the United States have no standing in court to maintain this bill; that they have no pecuniary interest in the result of the litigation or in the question to be decided by the court. We think that the fourth section of the act invests the Government with full power and authority to bring such an action as this, and, if the facts be proved, an injunction should issue.. Congress having the control of interstate commerce, has also the duty of protecting it, and it is entirely competent for that body to givé the remedy by injunction, as more efficient than any other eivü remedy. The subject is fully and ably discussed in the case of In re Debs, 158 U. S. 564 [15 S. Ct. 900, 39 L. Ed. 1092], See, also, Cincinnati, New Orleans, etc., Railway v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 162 U. S. 184 [16 S. Ct. 700, 40 L. Ed. 935]; Texas & Pacific Railway v. Interstate Commerce Commission, 162 U. S. 197 [16 L. Ed. 666, 40 L. Ed. 940].”

In Re Debs, Petitioner, 158 U. S. 564, 584, 15 S. Ct. 900, 906 (39 L. Ed. 1092) the following language was used: “Every government, entrusted, by the very terms of its being, with powers and duties to be exercised and discharged for the general welfare, has a right to apply to its own courts for any proper assistance in the exercise of the one and the discharge of the other, and' it is no sufficient answer to its appeal to one of those courts that it has no pecuniary interest in the matter.”

Does section 23 of the National Prohibition Act apply only to those who travel about to sell liquor? The statute makes a distinction between pne who keeps liquor on his person and one who carries liquor around on his person. It applies as well to the intending seller who keeps liquor on his person, at a fixed place of business, as to the seller who moves about. The statute makes a similar and plain distinction between one who travels to solicit and one who merely solicits orders for liquor. ■ Considering this contrast of persons, the words “or solicit, or take, or accept orders” plainly include acts done regardless of itinerancy. If a reasonable doubt existed as to the meaning of the section, the construction adopted should prevail, as section 3 of the act (27 USCA § 3) declares that “all the provisions of this Act shall be liberally construed to the end that [599]*599the use o£ intoxicating liquor as a beverage may be prevented.”

The same question' was presented in United States v. Rosoff (C. C. A.) 27 F.(2d) 719, 720, and the court said:

“But it by no means follows that section 23 is limited to itinerant persons, and such an interpretation seems to be in contradiction of its language.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 F.2d 597, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-lockhart-ned-1929.