87 Ga. 120 | Ga. | 1891
The charter of the city of Atlanta provides that “the mayor and general council shall have full power and authority to pass all by-laws and ordinances . . for the prevention and punishment of disorderly conduct and conduct liable to disturb the peace and tranquillity of any citizen or citizens thereof; and every other by-law, regulation and ordinance that may seem to them proper for the security, for the peace, health, order and good government of said city.” Acts 1874, p. 119, §15. The charter also provides that the mayor and general council “shall have full power and authority to regulate the retail of ardent spirits within the corporate limits of said city, and at their discretion to issue license to retail or to withhold the same, and to fix the price to be paid for license at any sum they may think proper, not exceeding two thousand dollars.” Id. p. 122, §27.
Under these provisions of the charter, the mayor and general council passed an ordinance prescribing the manner of issuing licenses for the retail of liquors, the limits or streets in which licenses might be granted, and the manner of keeping places licensed for this purpose, etc. The 14th sectiou of the ordinance provided as follows:
“The mayor and general council shall forfeit the license of any dealer of either spirituous or lager beer or malt liquors, whose place becomes a nuisance by disorder, threat or otherwise. ' The conviction in a State court of any person licensed to retail spirituous or malt liquors, for the violation of the State statute in relation to the sale of ardent spirits to a minor or a person already intoxicated, or the conviction of a retailer before the recorder’s court for the violation of any of the provisions of this ordinance, shall work an immediate revocation of the license of such person; and for any further exercise of the privilege granted by such license he shall be punished as one retailing without license.”
Under this ordinance Sprayberry, the plaintifl in
It was insisted before us by counsel for the plaintiff in error, that the mayor and general council had no power, under the charter, to pass the ordinance in question; that the effect of the ordinance was to revoke the license, which could not be done until a proceeding for that purpose had been instituted before some competent tribunal; that Sprayberry had a property right in the' license, which could not be taken from him in this summary manner; and that the ordinance was invalid aud ultra vires as punishing a crime by forfeiture. Under the clauses of the charter iibove quoted, we think the mayor and general council had full power and authority to pass the ordinance complained of. They have power to pass any ordinance that may seem to them proper for the security, the peace, order and good government of the city. They also have power to regulate the retail of ardent spirits, and in their discretion to issue license or withhold the same. It is now well-settled that the issuing of a license to retail liquors is not a contract, but is a permission to the licensee to engage in the business under such restrictions, conditions aud limitations as may appear judicious to the authority-issuing the license. The license not being a contract, the privilege granted thereby may be revoked at any time, and the business of selling liquor prohibited by the proper authorities. Under the charter the mayor and general council have power to grant licenses for the sale of liquors, or to prohibit the sale altogether by refusal to issue licenses. If they have the power to prohibit the sale altogether by refusal to issue license therefor, they
But it is insisted by the plaintiff in error that the license to sell liquor is a property right, and that this property right cannot be taken from him without a judgment by a competent tribunal. Ve have already seen that a license to sell liquor is not a contract, but only a permission to enjoy the privilege on the terms named, for a specified time, unless it be sooner abrogated. The granting of the license is an exercise of police power, and does not include any contractual relations whatever. “The contracts which the constitution protects are those that relate to property rights, not governmental.” Stone v. Mississippi, 101 U. S. 820. The license being a mere privilege to carry on a business subject to the will of the grantor, it is not property in the sense which protects it under the constitution. The revocation of the license does not deprive the citizen of his liberty or his property without due process of law. “The vesting by legislative authority, of the power to license various occupations and professions, requiring skill m their exercise, or the observance of the law of hygiene, or the like, has never been construed to be obnoxious to these objections. It has been uniformly held that laws providing by accustomed modes for-the licensing of physicians, lawyers, pilots, butchers, bakers, liquor-dealers, and in fact all trades, professions and callings, interfere with no natural rights of the citizen secured by our constitution.” McDonald
But it is claimed that he ought to have been notified by the mayor and counoil that his license had been revoked ;that unless this was done, he must try the case himself and determine for himself whether it had been revoked or not by his conviction. What was the necessity of any notice to him? His license informed him that it was subiect to be revoked. The law under which the license was granted informed him that his conviction would work an immediate revocation. What more notice could he desire? What other trial could he wish than the one he had already had in the superior court? When he was convicted there, the notice was ample that it operated as a revocation of his license. Nothing that he could have said or done before the mayor and council would have changed the record of his conviction ; they would have had no discretion in
It was also insisted that the conviction was not final, because it was subject to be set aside, and a motion for that purpose was undisposed of. In reply it is sufficient to say that under the facts of this case the judgment seems to have been treated as final until the charge was made against Sprayberry in the recorder’s court. As before remarked, judgment of conviction was pronounced against him m the superior court on the 17th of January, and he paid the fine and costs, and no motion to set the judgment aside was made until the 21st of February, after the charge in the recorder’s court had been preferred. After his attention was thus called to. the effect of his conviction in the superior court, no doubt he wished to set aside that conviction or to litigate about it until his license should expire. But outside of the particular facts above mentioned, we think that the conviction in this ease was final until it was properly set aside.
These are the only questions in the case that we deem it necessary to discuss. Judgment affirmed.