11 Mo. 102 | Mo. | 1847
delivered the opinion &f the Court.
This was an action on the case brought by the plaintiffs against the. defendant in the St. Louis Court of Common Pleas. The declaration contained several counts, varying the statement of the cause of action, but amounting in substance as follows: In the summer of 1846, the steam, boat '“Lehigh,” the property of the plaintiffs, regularly licensed, &c., navigating the river Mississippi, and engaged in the transportation of freight and passengers, on a voyage from Cincinnati to St. Louis, arrived at the common landing of St. Louis, with a load of freight and a number of passengers, when the agents and servants of the defendant, by direction, and authority of the defendant, prevented the discharge of freight and the landing of passengers from the boat,, and required the boat to leave the port, and prevented her from landing for the space of ten days, &c-
Third plea substantially the same as the second.
To the second and third pleas the plaintiffs filed a general demurrer, to which there was joinder; whereupon the court of Common Pleas overruled the demurrer, and gave judgment for the defendant; the plaintiffs have brought the cause here by writ of error.
The only question in the case, is whether the city authorities had power to pass the ordinance set out in the plea.
By the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of the State, entitled, “An act to reduce the law incorporating the city of St. Louis, and the several acts amendatory thereof, into one act, and to amend the same,55 approved, February 8, 1843; power is conferred on the Mayor and city council, within the city, by ordinance, “to make regulations to prevent the introduction of contageous diseases into the city; to make
Here is a clear and explicit delegation of power to pass the ordinance in question. The ordinance appears on its face to have been regularly passed and approved. If the ordinance adopted on this subject be void for want of legal authority, it will follow that the Mayor and Council can pass no ordinance whatever; and, that the General Assembly can impart nó such power to any one corporation. • This cannot be seriously contended. We are refered to the 1st sec., of the 3d art., Constitution of this State, which declares that, “the legislative power [of the Government] shall be vested in a General Assembly, which shall consist of a Senate and of a House of Representatives.” We can see no conflict between this clause and the authority conferred by the General Assembly on the Mayor and City Council of St. Louis. The grant of power to pass ordinances for the government of the city of St. Louis, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State, is not a delegation of the law making power of the government, delegated by the Constitution to the General Assembly.
The same division of the powers of government, as is found in the Constitution of this State, is to be found likewise in the Constitutions of the several States of this confederacy; the same power given to the municipal authority of St. Louis, is to be found in- the laws -of most of the States, given to the municipal authorities created by thelaws of such States; and ' similar ordinances to the one under consideration, have been adopted, and when occasion required, enforced by the municipal authorities, under the power conferred by their charter; and we know of no single instance in which any court has held, that it was not-a legitimate exercise of power. If this be so, it is at least a very pursuasive argument why we should not disturb the settled order'of things.
The judgment of the court of Common Pleas is affirmed.