47 S.E.2d 324 | Ga. | 1948
1. "Individuals do not have the inherent right to conduct their private businesses in the streets of a city. A city can prohibit the owners or operators of taxicabs and buses from transporting passengers for hire in such vehicles upon the streets of the city. The transportation of passengers for hire in such vehicles or otherwise is a privilege which the municipality can grant or withhold. As the owners or operators of taxicabs or jitney-buses have no right to transport passengers for hire on the streets of the city, and as the city can prohibit wholly or partially the conduct of such business in its streets, if the city sees fit to grant permission to individuals to conduct such business in its streets it can prescribe such terms and conditions as it may see fit, and individuals desiring to avail themselves of such permission must comply with such terms and conditions, whether they are reasonable or unreasonable. Schlesinger v. Atlanta,
2. "Equity will take no part in the administration of the criminal law. It will neither aid criminal courts in the exercise of their jurisdiction, nor will it restrain or obstruct them." Code, § 55-102. The same rule is likewise applicable in quasi-criminal proceedings. Starnes v. Atlanta,
3. "Where a court of equity has not jurisdiction, it will not assume jurisdiction for the purpose of inquiring into the constitutionality of a legislative act or the validity of a municipal ordinance." City of Atlanta v. Universal Film Exchanges,
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur, except Wyatt, J., who took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
On July 10, 1947, the plaintiff filed its equitable petition against Herbert T. Jenkins, Chief of Police of the City of Atlanta, to enjoin the enforcement of those provisions of the ordinance relating to call box stands. In substance, after being several times amended, the petition makes these allegations: The Mayor and General Council of the City of Atlanta granted it a permit to operate its taxicabs on the public streets of the city, and to do and perform all of the acts and things necessary to furnish to the public the character of transportation commonly furnished by taxicab operators. Upon the faith of its permit, the plaintiff has expended large sums of money in the purchase *460 of automobiles and a station for its business. The Mayor and General Council have granted to two competing companies identical permits to engage in the taxicab business. In order for the plaintiff to operate its business profitably, it must have access to locations where people who desire taxicab accommodations congregate. The Mayor and General Council have awarded to the plaintiff's competitors the open stands in that section of the city where the larger number of people who use taxicabs congregate, and have in that action unfairly discriminated against it. On several different occasions the defendant and his subordinate police officers have arrested the drivers of the plaintiff's taxicabs and charged them with the offense of using the closed stands of its competitors in violation of the penal provisions of the ordinance. Those cases, some of which were made months ago, are still pending in the police court, and other cases are being made which the plaintiff has been forced to answer and defend, but no determination has been made in any of the cases, making it impossible for it to get the question of the validity of the ordinance determined in the law courts, and for that reason it is compelled to resort to a court of equity.
It was further alleged that each section of the ordinance providing for closed stands and fixing a penalty for violating the regulations governing them is in violation of various alleged provisions of the Georgia Constitution. The prayers were: that the defendant be restrained and enjoined from molesting the plaintiff and its taxicab drivers, its starters, employees, or any of them, in the use of any of the open stands which had been designated and assigned to its competitors by the Mayor and General Council of the City of Atlanta; that the defendant and the police officers under his control be restrained and enjoined from interfering with its starters while lawfully in the discharge of their duties at any of the open stands which had thus been established; and that each and every section of the ordinance purporting to give the Mayor and General Council authority to establish open taxicab stands for the exclusive use of any company be declared unconstitutional, and therefore void and unenforceable by the defendant.
A general demurrer, which attacked the petition as amended *461 for failing to state a cause of action, was sustained, and the exception here is to that judgment.