193 Mo. App. 486 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1916
This is a mandamus suit. Ash-craft, the petitioner, on July 4, 1915, procured a license from the county court of Jackson county to conduct a dramshop in Lee’s Summit, a city of the fourth class, having less than 2500 inhabitants, and made application to the board of aldermen for a city license. The application was denied and he then applied to the city clerk for a license to open a “beer •depot or storeroom” in the city and tendered $25.50, being $25 for the license and fifty cents for the clerk’s ’fee for issuing it. The clerk, under instructions from the board of alderman, refused the application and Ashcraft brought this suit to compel him to issue .such license. An alternative writ was issued and on final hearing the court adjudged plaintiff entitled to .a peremptory writ. Defendant appealed.
Sometime before Ashcraft obtained a.license from The county court, prohibition, under the Local Option Law, had been adopted in Jackson county outside of Kansas City and Independence, and was in force in Lee’s Summit. ■ The circuit court of Jackson county liad held the local option election void but the case was pending in the Supreme Court on appeal, and after-wards the judgment of the circuit court was reversed. [See Bine v. Jackson County, 181 S. W. 36.]
The license issued to Ashcraft by the county court was void and the board of aldermen of Lee’s Summit were justified in refusing him a license either for a dramshop or for a beer depot or storeroom. The stat
The fact that Ashcraft armed himself with a license from the county court to sell liquor in a local option community was evidence of a most persuasive character that he intended to violate this statute. [State v. Starchich, 184 Mo. 485; State v. Sexton, 141 Mo. App. 694; State v. Munch, 57 Mo. App. 207.]
Mandamus being a discretionary writ, should not be granted where it will not promote substantial justice and the burden is on the petitioner to show that he has a clear legal right to the relief.’ [State ex rel. v. Lesueur, 136 Mo. 452; Thomas v. Williams, 99 Mo. 303; State ex rel. v. Newman, 91 Mo. 445; 19 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 753; High on Extraordinary Le
The judgment is reversed.