8 Utah 245 | Utah | 1892
This action was instituted to recover the value of an Australian kangaroo hound, killed by the defendant while at 'large on his premises in Ogden City. The evidence on the trial tended to establish that the hound was worth $800, the value alleged in the complaint. The defendant claims that the facts proven and the ordinance in evidence authorized the killing. The ordinance is as follows:
“Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the recorder to register any dog on application of the owner or keeper, and issue a certificate of registration, under the corporate seal, on payment by such owner or keeper to said recorder, for the use and benefit of the city, the sum of three dollars. Such certificate shall be numbered in the order of issue, and shall be in force for one year only from and after the date of the same; but may be renewed annually, on the payment of the sum of three dollars, as aforesaid.
“ Sec. 4. All dogs so registered shall wear a suitable collar, with the name or initials of the owner or keeper, and the number corresponding with that of the certificate of registry inscribed thereon; and all dogs found running at large within the limits of the city, not so registered and collared, shall be liable to be killed by any person.”
The provision of the charter of Ogden City authorizing the ordinance is as follows: “The city council shall have power to license, tax, regulate, or prohibit the keeping of dogs, and to authorize the destruction of the same when at large contrary to ordinance.” The question is presented, had the legislature the power to authorize the city to provide by ordinance for the registration and collaring of dogs within its limits, and to authorize their destruction when at large contrary to such provisions ? Though the common law recognized dogs as property, it extended to them less legal
The term “law,” as used in this constitutional provision, embraces all legal and equitable rules defining human rights and duties, and providing for their enforcement; not only as between man and man, but also between the state and its citizens. The term “ due process of law” includes all the steps essential to deprive a person of life, liberty, or property; it includes all the forms and acts essential to-its application and to give effect to it. The means that-, may be employed to accomplish the purpose of the law is, the process; in other words, “process” is the mode by which the purpose of the law may be effected. And this; mode as to similar subjects, under similar circumstances,, must be the same to all persons. This is “due process of law.” Judicial action is usually required to determine property rights against its owner, but in some cases administrative or executive action is sufficient. The emergency may be such as not to admit of the delay essential to judicial inquiry and consideration, or the subject of such action or process may be of such a nature, or the conditions and circumstances in which the act must be performed to effect the protection and give effect to the law may be such, as to render judicial inquiry and consideration impracticable. If a man is assailed under circumstances inducing in him a reasonable belief that it is.