Wong Sing v. Independence

83 P. 387, 47 Or. 231, 1905 Ore. LEXIS 124
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 27, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 83 P. 387 (Wong Sing v. Independence) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wong Sing v. Independence, 83 P. 387, 47 Or. 231, 1905 Ore. LEXIS 124 (Or. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Moore

delivered the opinion.

1. It is insisted by defendant’s counsel, in support of the judgment of the circuit court, that plaintiff had a remedy by appeal from the judgment rendered against him in the recorder’s court; and, this being so, a writ of review was not the proper remedy to correct the errors alleged to have been committed. Assuming, without deciding, that a writ of review does not lie in cases-where a remedy by appeal exists, the authority relied upon as conferring the latter right will be examined. The charter reincorporating the City of Independence, filed in the office of the Secretary of State February 21,1903 (Sp. Laws 1903, pp. 703,714), does not in express terms grant such right. It is argued by defendant’s counsel, however, that an ordinance of that city, passed and approved in March, 1894, conferred the right of appeal from judgments rendered in the recorder’s court, which municipal enactment was recognized and approved when the new charter was granted. The clause of the charter relied upon is as follows:

“All ordinances heretofore passed and in force when this act takes effect, and not in conflict with any of its provisions, shall be and remain in force after this act takes effect until repealed by the city council”: Sp. Laws 1903, pp. 703, 711, § 28.

The ordinance in question is not certified up as a part of the transcript. There is printed in the brief of the defendant’s counsel what purports to be Section 13 of Ordinance No. 1, of the City of Independence, passed March 7, 1894, and approved three days thereafter, of which the following is an excerpt, to wit: “Defendant may appeal from a judgment rendered in the recorder’s court at any time within 30 days from its rendition.” If the proof of the existence of this ordinance was adequate, we do not think the right attempted to be conferred could possibly be granted in the manner indicated. Jurisdiction of the [234]*234subject-matter of actions depends for its exercise upon a valid grant of power, evidenced by proper legislative enactment. The parties to actions may waive their own rights and confer jurisdiction of their persons by a voluntary appearance, but they are powerless to confer upon any tribunal jurisdiction of an appeal, because the right to do so is not vested in them.

2. The section of the charter hereinbefore quoted recognized the validity of ordinances “in force” when the act went into effect. An ordinance attempting to confer jurisdiction of the subject-matter of actions was never in force, and hence no appeal lies from a judgment rendered in the. Recorder’s Court of the City of Independence.

3. The conclusion thus reached brings us to a consideration of the question whether or not the complaint filed in the recorder’s court complied with the requirements of the statute in the manner of charging the plaintiff with the commission of a crime. The charter of the City of Independence, creating the office, analogous to that of a police judge, and prescribing the procedure thereof, contains the following provision:

“The recorder is the judicial officer of the said city, and shall hold court therein at such place as the council may provide, which shall be known as the ‘recorder’s court,’ and he shall * * have exclusive jurisdiction of all offenses defined and made punishable by any ordinance of the city, and of all actions brought to enforce or to recover any penalty or forfeiture declared or given by such ordinance; and he shall be governed by the Justice’s Code of this State in all civil and criminal proceedings in the recorder’s court, including all proceedings for violation of any city ordinance”: Sp. Laws 1903, pp. 703, 707, § 18.

An examination of the Justice’s Code of this State will' show that the following are the provisions regulating the proceedings of such inferior tribunals, to wit:

[235]*235“A criminal action in a justice’s court is commenced and proceeded in to final determination, and the judgment therein enforced, in the manner provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure, except as in this title otherwise specially provided”: B. & C. Comp. § 2263.

In a justice’s court a criminal action is commenced by the filing of a complaint therein: B. & C. Comp. § 2264. The complaint is to -be deemed an indictment within the meaning of the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, prescribing what is sufficient to be stated in such pleading, and the form of stating it: B. & C. Comp. § 2265. The provisions of Chapter VIII of the Code to which attention is called, so far as applicable to the sufficiency of the complaint in the case at bar, is as follows :

“The indictment must charge but one crime and in one form only ; except that, where the crime may be committed by the use of different means, the indictment may allege the means in the alternative”: B. & C. Comp. § 1308.

And it “must be direct and certain, as it regards the crime charged”: B. & C. Comp. § 1306.

The provisions of Ordinance No. 16 of the City of Independence, involved herein, are as follows:

“Section 1. That no person or persons shall be permitted to sell or in any manner dispose of any spirituous, malt, or vinous liquors in the City of Independence in less quantities than a gallon without first having obtained a license therefor from the City of Independence as hereinafter provided.
“Sec. 7. Any person who shall sell, give away, or in any manner dispose of, or shall keep for sale, or offer to sell, give away or in any manner dispose of, within the corporate limits of the City of Independence, any spirituous, malt, or vinous liquors, without first having obtained a license for that purpose as in this ordinance provided, shall, upon conviction thereof before the recorder’s court, be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor [236]*236more than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the city [ail not less than twenty-five days nor more than fifty days, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the option of the court, and each and every sale or disposal of, or offer to sell'or in any manner dispose of, any spirituous, malt, or vinous liquors, shall constitute a separate and distinct violation of the provisions of this section.”

Construing the section last quoted in pari materia with the preceding, so as to determine their import, would necessarily incorporate into section 7 the phrase “in less quantities than a gallon,” to be found in section 1 of the ordinance. The sales, donations or disposals of intoxicating liquors thus prohibited, without first having procured a license authorizing, them, are of quantities less than a gallon. No license is required, and hence no offense is. committed against the State law, when in the same transaction a gallon or more of spirituous, malt or vinous liquor is sold, given away or disposed of by any person in the City of Independence.

4. An examination of the complaint in the case at bar, filed in the recorder’s court, will show that it fails to state that the quantity of intoxicating liquors alleged to have been sold by Wong Sing was less than a gallon.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
83 P. 387, 47 Or. 231, 1905 Ore. LEXIS 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wong-sing-v-independence-or-1905.