29 S.D. 46 | S.D. | 1912
Defendant was charged, in the city justice court of the city of Milbank, S. D., with a breach of an ordinance of said city. Pie was convicted, and appealed to and obtained a trial de novo in the circuit court of Grant county, where he was
Section 500 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that this court, upon appeal, “must give judgment without regard to technical errors or defects, or to exceptions which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties.” We think if there ever was a case where this provision of the statute would require an affirmance of the judgment appealed from, this is certainly such a one. Defendant was charged with violating an ordinance of said city by appearing in a state of drunkenness and intoxication in a public place in said city; and the evidence showed, beyond all possible doubt, that defendant was, at the time mentioned, in the condition charged and was making a public nuisance of himself. Appellant in no manner questions the sufficiency of the proof, except that he says: (1) There is no evidence showing the place where the offense was committed was a public place or within tfie corporate limits of the city of Milbank. (2) There was no competent proof of the ordinance which defendant is charged with breaking.
The rule is established by the great weight of authority that a municipal court will take judicial notice of the ordinances of its municipality; and that, in an action brought in such courts to enforce an ordinance, such ordinance need neither be pleaded nor proven. It was early decided by the Supreme Court of Kansas,
This case has become a leading authority upon the proposition above quoted. In McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, § 861, after stating that the weight of authority is to the contrary, the author says: “But the better view appears to be that where an action for the violation of an ordinance has been commenced in a municipal or police court, and the case is appealed, the latter court, whether state or municipal, will take judicial notice of the incorporation of the city and of the existence and substance of its ordinances.”
We think a review of the decisions cited in the above work will not support the conclusion that the weight of authority is
The judgment and order appealed from are affirmed.