13 Ga. App. 354 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1913
The plaintiff in error was tried before the recorder of the City of Atlanta, charged with a violation of a municipal ordinance under which it was made unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to conduct or carry on any business in the City of Atlanta by means of any wheel or similar device in which the elements of chance are used for the purpose of attracting trade. The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts, and the trial resulted in the conviction of the accused. On certiorari the superior court affirmed the judgment of the recorder.
Two defenses are presented by the writ of error: (1) that the evidence does not show that the accused was guilty of any offense; and (2) that it was not within the power of the municipal court to punish the accused; for the reason that the ordinance is void because it is covered by the State law, and attempts to punish for acts as to which provision is made by the State law.
The enactment by a municipality of an ordinance against the keeping of a gaming-house by pne who is carrying oh a business, and whose purpose in keeping the gaming-house, or keeping a gambling device in a house under his control, is merely to attract trade, is absolutely futile, because a statute of the State forbids the keeping of a gaming-house by any person, and does not permit it for any purpose; and the addition in the ordinance of descriptive terms applicable to only one class of persons who might keep gaming-houses does not add a single additional element to the constituents of the State offense, or subtract a single ingredient therefrom.
The decision of this case is practically controlled by the ruling of this court in Cotton v. Atlanta, 10 Ga. App. 397 (73 S. E. 683). This case differs from that of Athens v. Atlanta, 6 Ga. App. 244 (64 S. E. 711), and similar cases cited; and the rulings in those cases will not be extended. This court, recognizing the extreme difficulty attending the enforcement of the regulations prohibiting
Nothing is better settled than that an ordinance by which a city attempts to interfere in the enforcement of a State statute, or to assume jurisdiction of offenses which are cognizable alone under the laws of the State, is absolutely void. For this reason, in the absence of an express grant to the City of Atlanta in its charter, the ordinance under which the accused was convicted is void, his conviction was unauthorized, and the judge of the superior court erred in not sustaining the certiorari. Judgment reversed.