203 N.W. 968 | Minn. | 1925
The question presented is whether the statute contravenes section 12, article 1, of the state Constitution. *254
In obedience to the Constitution, the legislature enacted the exemption statute, now contained in section 9447, G.S. 1923, which provides that certain property shall not be liable to attachment or sale on any final process issued from any court. Wearing apparel is included in the list of exempt property. In the case at bar some of the relator's clothing is held by the keeper of a lodging house as security for the payment of room rent which relator owes.
In Coleman v. Ballandi,
Shortly after Coleman v. Ballandi, supra, was decided, the court sustained the provision in the exemption statute which gives the holder of a claim for the purchase price of exempt property the right to attach or levy upon the property. Rogers v. Brackett,
The common law has always recognized an innkeeper's right to a lien upon the baggage of his guests. It seems that the right grew out of the obligation to receive all who come to an inn, for the proprietor is bound to serve the public to the utmost extent of his ability and an action for damages will lie if he refuses without adequate reason. It was taken for granted that such a lien exists and may be enforced in this state when Singer Mnfg. Co. v. Miller, *255
In Nelson v. Johnson,
The mechanic's lien law condemned in Coleman v. Ballandi was condemned because the discrimination in the exemption laws between different classes of creditors and kinds of debts was thought to *256 be class legislation. When the case was decided, the courts were strict in their application of the constitutional prohibition of class legislation. In recent years there has been a marked drift in the opposite direction in both Federal and state courts. The legislature is now permitted to create classes to which the operation of so-called general laws is confined without much risk of having the statute held to be unconstitutional as special or class legislation. The drift away from the ancient landmarks has been deplored in some quarters, but it has been inevitable. To deal with conditions which justify legislative action by enacting laws embracing all classes of persons and all lines of business has become increasingly difficult. In applying the constitutional prohibition of class legislation to the enactments of the legislature, the courts have found the prohibition sufficiently elastic to permit statutes to stand upon a more slender foundation than there is here.
We hold that to group the keepers of hotels, boarding houses and lodging house in one class, and to subject all personal property which comes into their possession to a lien to secure the payment of claims against the owner for board and lodging, is not an unwarranted discrimination in favor of a single class of creditors to the exclusion of all others, and that neither section 12, article 1, nor section 34, article 4, of the state Constitution, is contravened by the act in question.
Affirmed. *257