75 Tenn. 441 | Tenn. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the court.
The charter of the city of Knoxville provides: “That the corporation aforesaid shall have full power and authority to enact and pass such laws and ordinances necessary to preserve the health of the town, to prevent and remove nuisances, * * to impose and appropriate fines, penalties and forfeitures for the
This action of replevin was brought by King for a hog taken up and impounded by the corporate authorities under these ordinances. The circuit judge tried the case without a jury, and rendered judgment in favor of King, and the corporation appealed.
The bill of exceptions shows that King himself testified on the trial that he lived one-half or three-quarters of a mile from the corporate limits of Knox
The trial judge found as a fact — a finding well warranted by the evidence — that the plaintiff had knowledge of the existence of the ordinances prohibiting the running at large of hogs within the corporate limits. His Honor, however, gave judgment for. the plaintiff below upon the ground that the plaintiff did not intend to violate' the ordinances. He conceded that there would have been a willful violation of the ordinances if the plaintiff had lived within such close proximity to the corporate limits as to have known that his hogs, when turned loose on his premises, would go into the city, but thought it would be otherwise if the plaintiff lived at such a 'distance from the corporate limits that he could not know, or would not have good reason to believe that the hogs would
The case involves the validity of the ordinances in so far as they undertake to declare a forfeiture of the animal for running at large contrary to their provisions. The power to forfeit, it has been held, must be conferred, or it will not exist: Donovan v. Vicksburg, 29 Miss., 247; 1 Dill. Mun. Cor., sec. 282. It is unnecessary to consider whether it may not also be necessarily implied from the grant of authority to impose fines and penalties, for the power is conferred by the charter of the city of Knoxville, in the language above quoted. The weight of authority in such case is, that the power may be exercised by impounding and selling the animal, upon reasonable notice by publication, for the obvious reason that the owner may regain his property by paying the reasonable fees of impounding and keeping, or may have a legal investigation of the case by bringing his action of re-plevin, as in any other case of distress: Whitfield v. Longest, 6 Ire., 268; Gooselink v. Campbell, 4 Iowa, 296. The form of notice may' always be prescribed by the legislative department, whether state or municipal, and ’ personal notice is not essential: Helen v.
To be intentional, the violation must, of course, be with knowledge of the ordinance. The circuit judge found as a fact that the plaintiff below did have knowledge of the ordinances in' question, a finding sustained by all the evidence. The plaintiff, moreover, as we have seen, resided within so short a distance of the corporation that his hogs, when turned loose on his premises, would and did go into the city, and he not only had good reason to believe, but knew that they would do so. The trial judge was of opinion that these facts would make ■ out a case of intentional violation of the ordinances. He must have so thought either because he would infer from these facts a specific intent on the part of the
A result may be said to be intentional when the party either knows or has good reason to believe that it will follow the act done. Ordinarily, it is not necessary to show a specific intent, or mala mens. Such a requirement would render the enforcement of police regulations, either of the State or its municipalities, altogether uncertain, for each case would, in that view, turn upon its own facts and the peculiarities of the court or jury by whom it was to be determined. It is absolutely essential to the efficiency of such laws and ordinances that their enforcement should be fixed and certain upon a given state of facts. All that was intended by the provision in question of the city charter, was that the non-resident citizen should not be subjected to a forfeiture of his property by virtue of an ordinance of which he had no knowledge, and ' because of an act on his part which he could have no reason to believe would lead to an infraction of the ordinance. If the municipal laws are allowed to be violated by the live stock of the neighboring residents, the ordinances would cease to be of any utility. Such residents may well submit to some restrictions upon the common privileges, or supposed privileges of the citizen, for the sake of the resulting benefit to the city, and the increased convenience and safety of its streets to themselves.
It is argued on behalf of the defendant in error,
There is proof in the record that the corporate authorities at times did not enforce the ordinances in question. It is, of course, not insisted by the plaintiff below that such neglect of the officers repealed or annulled the ordinances. It is, however, argued that these facts tended to show that the “plaintiff did not have that notice of the ordinances which would fix him with intentional violation. But the trial judge finds, as we have seen,' actual knowledge by the plaintiff of the ordinances, and this finding was unquestionably correct.
The judgment below will be reversed, and a judgment rendered here in favor of the city. The plaintiff’s ownership of the hog being conceded, the purposes of the city will, perhaps, be attained by a judgment for the fees of taking up, impounding and keeping the hog, and the costs of the cause.