129 Ga. 576 | Ga. | 1907
The Georgia Railway and Electric Company operates a line of street and suburban railway which passes through the town of Oakland City, its tracks being in a public street of
Without determining whether the ordinance complained of is valid or not, or whether it is in whole or in part unreasonable, the facts of this ease are not such as to require a reversal of the judgment refusing an injunction. The general rule is that equity has no jurisdiction in criminal matters. Its jurisdiction is for the protection of property and property rights and franchises. Certain courts of law are invested with power to try persons accused of the violation of the criminal laws. The two are separate; and the general rule is that a court of equity will neither aid nor interfere with the administration of the criminal laws in the courts established by the State and' invested with criminal jurisdiction. The rule has often been applied both to criminal proceedings under the State laws and quasi-criminal proceedings under municipal laws. An additional reason for it might be suggested, in respect to the State, on the ground that it might be an attempt to restrain the sovereign power in the name of which criminal proceedings are conducted. The State is not suable at all without its consent, save by another State in the Supreme Court of the United States, while municipalities have not the same immunity
It has often been sought to obtain an injunction on the general ground of multiplicity of suits, but these efforts have generally been denied. Poyer v. Village of Des Plaines, 123 Ill. 111 (5 Am. St. Rep. 494). If mere multiplicity of prosecutions alone, without other grounds for equitable interference for the protection of property or franchises, would require injunction against criminal proceedings, every person who might be prosecuted for conducting a business without a license, or for doing business on Sunday, or for violating a municipal ordinance against keeping goods on the ■streets, or in many other cases which might be suggested, could protect himself with an injunction, so as 'to continue to violate the law while the single case in equity was being tried and appealed from court to court. In some cases, where there was a clear right which was being invaded under an invalid ordinance, multiplicity of prosecutions has been considered as adding force to the plaintiff’s position. In one or two of them injunction has been granted, not against proceeding altogether, but only against the excessive multiplying of cases under the ordinance. In Port of Mobile v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 84 Ala. 115, it was held, that where a city attempted unlawfully to destroy a franchise which had been conferred upon a railroad compatíy, and which the municipality had no right to revoke, by means of a quasi-criminal ordinance, injunction would be granted. In the opinion Somerville, J., said: “There is no sort of pretense that it was a mere police regulation. . . The purpose of the defendant corporation is obviously to destroy the franchise which it hás conferred, and the ordinance under consideration, having this effect, if executed, must be held to be void.” For other authorities outside of this State on the subject, see 1 High on Injunctions (4th ed.) §-68; 2 Id. § 1244; Note to Crichton v. Dahmer, 21 L. R. A. 84, note to same case in 35 Am. St. R. 670 et seq.; 16 Am. & Eng. Enc. L. 370-372.
We now turn to the authorities in'this State. In Gault v. Wallis, 53 Ga. 675, the general rule was applied in a case where a justice of the peace discharged a prisoner and issued a cost fi. fa.
The rule that a court of equity will not ordinarily enjoin a criminal act,, considered merely as such, but will enjoin a trespass working irreparable damage to property, although the act may also be the subject of punishment, is often invoked to authorize an injunction against a criminal prosecution; But an individual act causing irreparable damage is one thing; the prosecution of a person charged with an offense, in the courts provided for the trial of such proceeding, is a different thing.
Without reciting the evidence in the present case, a comparison of it with the principles above enunciated will show that, whether the ordinance was reasonable or not, the injunction prayed was properly denied. There was no effort to take away property or
Judgment affirmed.