28 Wash. 200 | Wash. | 1902
— This is an action to enjoin the operation and maintenance of a pound-net fish trap. The principal question presented involves the construction of § 4 of the act of 1899 relating to food fishes. Session Laws 1899, p. 194. That section provides, among other things, that there shall' be an end passage way of at least GOO feet, and a lateral j)assage way of at least. 2,400 feet, between all pound-net traps constructed in the waters of Puget Sound; and further provides that, “for the purpose of determining end passage way a line shall be drawn parallel to the general direction of the shore line for one-half mile on either side of a proposed location, which parallel line shall intersect the outer end of any location theretofore made, and maintained as by law provided, and a new location shall bo driven at least six hundred feet distant at right angles from such base line.” From the record it appears that the appellant, plaintiff below, was, at the time of the commencement of this action, and for a long time prior thereto, the owner of and operating a pound-net trap in that part of the waters of Puget Sound known as “Boundary Bay,” under licenses duly issued it from time to time by the fish commissioner of the state of Washington. It further appears that the respondent, after the construction of the appellant’s trap, constructed in the same waters a pound-net trap in a northwesterly direction front the appellant’s trap, and distant therefrom 620 feet, measured between the outer end of the latter trap and the inner end of the former, these points being the nearest points between the two traps. The respondent’s trap was also located under a license issued by the fish commissioner, and is in all respects a lawful structure, if it is not so close to the appellant’s trap as to be within
Counsel for the appellant, while they criticize and object to the construction put by the trial court upon the statute quoted, offer no other solution by which effect can be given to it. On tlie contrary, they contend that no rule can be formulated out of the words used which will not lead to uncertain, ambiguous, or absurd results, when attempt is made to apply the rule to some one or more of the actual existing conditions; and, for these reasons, they contend that this part of the statute should be ignored, and the terms “end” and “lateral” passage ways be given their natural meaning; and that to' give them their natural meaning is to hold that noi new locator can locate a trap within a space surrounding an existing trap bounded by lines forming a parallelogram run 2,400 feet from each side, and 600 feet from each end, of the trap
It is upon these and similar incongruities that the argument is founded upon which we are asked to hold the statute inoperative. But courts are not at liberty to ignore statutes because it may find that their application leads to absurd, incongruous, or even mischievous results. The wisdom of a statute, its expediency and policy, are legislative, not judicial, questions. When, therefore, the meaning of a statute is clear, the courts can but give it effect, unless, of course, it violates some principle of fundamental law which the legislature is bound to observe. To do otherwise “is not to interpret law, but to make it.” Turning to the statute itself, we think the trial court correctly interpreted it. In fact, we can hardly see how it could be given any other meaning. But it is said to give it this meaning is to make it contradictory of what is said before in the same section; that the section first provides for an end passage way of 600 feet, and that an end passage means a passage way measured in a right line on the course the trap takes. Doubtless this would be true if nothing more had been said. But the same authority that had power to provide for an end passage way had power to define the meaning of the term. When, therefore, it provided for such passage way, and further provided that it should be determined by measurements made in a particular way, the end passage way is one found by measurements made in the prescribed way. The statute is a whole, and must be read as a whole. Generals are controlled by particulars;
It is also objected that the trial court erred in finding the course of respondent’s trap, and it is urged that its true course would sufficiently change the base line to bring' the trap within the prohibited distance. To exemplify the evidence on this point would require the use of maps, which, as we have said, cannot well be reproduced. We have carefully examined it, however, and fail to find any error in the trial court’s conclusions.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reavis, C. J., and Mount, White, Anders and Dunbar, JJ., concur.
Hadley, J., not sitting.