43 So. 475 | Miss. | 1907
-delivered the opinion of the court.
The chancery court had no jurisdiction whatever in this cause. There are no property rights involved, in any proper sense of the word “property.” The constitutionality of the ordinance, if it is assailed, can be determined in the law court. Whether, if constitutional, the appellant is guilty or not, is a question exclusively of criminal jurisdiction, with which equity has nothing to do. The ease is wholly unlike Quintini v. Board of Mayor and Marshal of Bay St. Louis, 64 Miss., 483, 1 South., 625, 60 Am. Rep., 62, for there property rights in real estate were directly involved. The case falls squarely within the case of Crighton v. Dahmer, 70 Miss., 602, 13 South., 237, reported in 35 Am. St. Rep., 666, with notes. And see, same case and notes, 21 L. R. A., 84. The general principle insisted upon by the learned counsel for the appellant may be conceded — the principle announced in the case of Quintini v. Bay St. Louis, supra; but in no possible legal view can the appellant be said to have involved here any proper rights, or to
We refer specially to two cases cited hy learned counsel for appellee: Poyer v. Village of Des Plains, 123 Ill., 111, 13 N. E., 819, 5 Am. St. Rep., 494; Paulk v. Mayor of Sycamore, 104 Ga., 24, 30 S. E., 417, 41 L. R. A., 772, 69 Am. St. Rep., 128. In the first of these eases a town ordinance prohibited all public picnics and open air dances within the town limits. The complainant filed his bill, in which he alleged that he had
It may be remarked, in conclusion, that the jurisdiction of equity in matters.of this character, even where property rights have been involved, has been pressed to the utmost limit that principle and reason can possibly uphold. Indeed, the jurisdiction should be restricted, rather than expanded. Certainly this case falls clearly outside the jurisdiction of the equity court in any possible view of the matter.
The decree of the chancellor is affirmed.