51 So. 297 | Ala. | 1909
This appeal raises a great number and variety of questions, but Ave think the consideration of one Avill suffice to dispose of the case. Appellant had done an act — Ave will assume for the purposes of the argument- — denounced by the legislative enactment of March 12, 1907, entitled “An act to define and punish aiding, abetting or counseling or procuring an unlawful sale, purchase, gift or other unlaAvful disposition of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, or liquors prohibited by laAv from being sold, given away or otherwise disposed of.” — Acts 1907, p. 366. He was prosecuted for the violation of an ordinance of the city of Birmingham which is as follows: “Sec. 805 (as amended). All offenses that are misdemeanors under the laws of the state of Alabama, as defined by statutes or by the common law in force in the state of Alabama, are hereby declared to be offenses and misdemeanors under the laws and ordinances of the mayor and aldermen of the city of Birmingham, except the violation of the state revenue laws, and punishable upon conviction in the police court of Birmingham as provided in section 806 of this Code.” The record affords no information as to the date of the adoption of the quoted ordinance.
Municipal quasi criminal ordinances, as Avell as ordinances of a different character, must be clear, certain,
We have found only íavo instances in which ordinances adopting a code of foreign laws en bloc have been considered. In Chrisman v. City of Jackson, 84 Miss. 787, 37 South. 1015, an ordinance of the sort was sustained. But legislative enactment had prescribed that “all offenses against the criminal laws of this
It is supposed that the case of Kettering v. Jacksonville, 50 Ill. 39, decided by Supreme Court of Illinois in 1869, holds to the contrary of what has been said. The following language of the decision in that case furnishes all the information we have of the question there presented and decided: “It is said that the ordinance in question prohibits not only the sale of liquor by retail, but by wholesale, and therefore cannot be sus
We intend to cast no sort of discredit upon those cases. Their doctrine is perfectly sound. But they are without influence in the case at bar. The ordinance considered in those cases clearly told the citizen what he must not do. But here the offense is defined neither by inclusion nor exclusion. The offenses to be included, as well as those to be excluded, are alike undefined. If the ordinance had said all acts injurious to the health, morals, or peace of the community are hereby prohibited, the courts are competent to determine in each case as it might arise whether the act charged violates so general
The considerations already adverted to suffice for the disposition of this appeal. We are advised, however, that there were a number of cases pending in the inferior court of criminal jurisdiction in the city of Birmingham, and others in the criminal court of Jefferson county, to which last-named court they were removed from the police court under the statute, at the time this appeal was taken, brought under other sections of the Municipal Code of that city, which await the disposition of this case, and which depend upon questions other than those we have already considered. One of those questions is involved in this appeal, has been argued by counsel, and may with propriety have consideration at this time.
The act creating the inferior court of criminal jurisdiction in the city of Birmingham conferred upon the clerk the power to issue warrants of arrest. It is argued that the issue of warrants of arrest is a judicial power, which can be conferred only upon a judicial offi
We are also requested to consider whether the act approved August 13, 1907, and commonly known as the “municipal Code Law,” had the effect to abolish the inferior court of criminal jurisdiction in the city of Birmingham, or the police court of Birmingham, as the court in which this prosecution was commenced is known in the act of its creation. It appears, however, that, even if the argument for the abolition of the police court be tenable, the Municipal Code law had not under its terms had that effect at the date when this prosecution was begun; its operation being postponed to a later date. The question here presented is therefore prematurely presented, is moot, and cannot now be considered.
An order will be entered here discharging the appellant.
Reversed and rendered.