37 Neb. 680 | Neb. | 1893
On the 12th day of May, 1893, one of the plaintiffs in error, George C. Eerguson, filed with the. clerk of the board of trustees of-the' village of Odell the petition of thirty-four persons, asking that a license be granted to said Eerguson to sell spirituous, vinous, and malt liquors in said village for the municipal year ending April 30, 1894. A notice of the filing of said petition was published in a newspaper printed ánd published in said village, the first insertion being May 12, followed by another on the 19th of the same month, concluding with still another publication in the same newspaper the 26th of May, all in the year 1893. Section 2, chapter 50, Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, provides that “no action shall be taken upon said application until at least two weeks’ notice of the filing of the same has been given by publication in a newspaper published in said county,”' etc.
It seems that in this particular case another notice was also posted on May 24, calling attention to the application aforesaid and; fixing the 27th of May as the date when » hearing would be had. ' Contention is , made that thiá should be taken into consideration in some way, but why, is not clearly defined. The notice given in the. newspaper had been given for two weeks ’with the expiration of May
It is now urged that no hearing could properly be had on the 27th, and this is insisted upon as having been settled in State v. Reynolds, 18 Neb., 431. Between that case and the one under consideration there is a most marked difference. In the hearing before the council upon the application covered in State v. Reynolds, supra, the license was granted at the first meeting after the full notice had been given, without allowing an opportunity to remonstrators to adduce evidence. In this case evidence was heard, and upon this evidence and the argument of counsel the question of granting a license was considered and determined. There seems to have been acquiescence in this procedure by the remonstrators, and no objection raised as to the time of hearing until after the final decision adverse to the remonstrators. Had time for offering evidence in support of the averments of the remonstrance been asked, it would have been the duty of the board to have granted it, and to have fixed a reasonable time for the purpose. Indeed, it is doubtful whether less than an affirmative waiver of further time would relieve the village trustees of the duty of fixing ssch reasonable time in advance of the proposed hearing. After the two weeks’ notice had been given, however, the village board had jurisdiction to pass upon the application, in view of such remonstrance as may then have been filed. Until the expiration of the time specified for- giving notice it could not be known who might wish to
The remonstrance was based largely upon the averments that the applicant was not in good faith applying" on his ■own account, but to enable one Truxaw to operate a saloon in Odell; that by reason of the said Truxaw having violated the law the year before w'hen he had a license by selling liquor to minors and habitual drunkards, and to others on Sundays and on general election days, and by keeping a gambling house, that said Truxaw was disqualified to obtain a license in his own proper name for selling liquors for the municipal year ending April' 30, 1894, and that he had procured Ferguson to make the application with the object of himself operating a saloon in the name of Ferguson, and that, to that end, he had been largely instrumental in procuring signatures to the petition of Ferguson. Evidence directly competent to prove a material part of these allegations was tendered and rejected, upon what theory we are unable to conjecture. The same course was taken as to other averments of the remonstrance, though not with the same recklessness as upon the branch just referred to. In this trial there was, however, a sort of consistency toward both parties, for the board refused to hear any evidence that the proposed vendor of liquors was .a man of good moral character. The board seems, from its conduct,
Reversed and remanded.