18 Mont. 303 | Mont. | 1896
The defendant was adjudged guilty of vagrancy, in violation of section 1 of ordinance 55 of the city of Butte. The complaint originally made in the police court of the city of Butte was signed by Charles Swanson, a policeman. It charged the defendant with a violation of section 1 of ordinance 55 of said city, entitled “An ordinance relating to vagrants, opium smoking and obstructing sidewalks,” and contained the following averment: “That upon information and belief, at and in said city, the said defendant, then being, did then and there violate said section of said ordinance, by willfully and unlawfully being an idle and dissolute male person who loiters in and about saloons, gambling houses, and houses of prostitution, and in being a first class pimp.” The defendant appealed to the district court from the judgment in the police court. In the district court the defendant demurred upon the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The court sustained the demurrer and dismissed the case for the reason that the complaint contained scandalous matter. The defendant was discharged. The city of Butte appealed.
Tbe word “pimp” in the complaint, is by itself not necessarily so objectionable. Webster defines “pimp” as one who provides gratification for the lust of others; a procurer; a pander. It is likewise defined in substantially the same language in tbe Century dictionary. It is particularly offensive, however, in this complaint, by tbe language connected with its use. Scurrility and slang have no proper place in a pleading. Naturally, tbe word, by its significance, is used as a term of opprobrium, bearing cruelly upon tbe moral character of a person so charged. But tbe court ought to have stricken out the objectionable language, instead of dismissing tbe action; for,
The order sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the action is reversed.
Reversed.