90 Kan. 164 | Kan. | 1913
On July 3, 1908, a judgment of this ( court was entered permanently enjoining the city of Coffeyville, its officers and agents, from licensing persons to sell liquor or to maintain places for the salé thereof by levying fines in simulated prosecutions of other makeshifts and devices, and also from licensing bawdy houses and disreputable places of like character, and from all attempts to set at naught the laws of the state enacted for the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquor and for the suppression of prostitution and of houses of ill fame. (The State v. Coffeyville, 78 Kan. 599, 97 Pac. 372.) On September 10, 1912, on complaint of the county attorney that the. injunction was being violated by the officers of the city a citation for contempt was issued accusing the mayor, the chief of police and four policemen with violating the judgment of injunction. A denial of the charges was made by the respondents. A commissioner was appointed to take evidence and to make findings of fact and conclusions of law thereon. This was done, and the commissioner found, upon what appears to be sufficient ■ evidence, that five of these officers attempted to set at. naught the intoxicating liquor laws of the state as well as those for the suppression of prostitution and of. houses of ill fame, that during their incumbency of •. office they took and received from a number of persons in the city sums of money for the privilege of remain- . ing inmates of houses of ill fame and also as license fees , for the privilege of selling intoxicating liquor as well as for keeping and maintaining places where intoxicating liquors were kept and sold. There was no finding of a violation of the judgment by respondent Donnelly.
The respondents contest the sufficiency of the evidence and contend that they were not given sufficient notice of the injunction. The injunction violated was , not a preliminary order but was the final judgment in an action in which notice was given and wherein the city', appeared and defended. The judgment, rendered was:
The proceeding against the city, with the result reached, necessarily-attracted general attention of the people and could not easily escape the knowledge of those who Were in control of city affairs or who shortly afterwards came iinto control. The respondents came into office in April, 1911, about two years and nine
“In willfully embarking upon an unlawful business they might well be presumed to have scanned every possible source of danger and to have not overlooked so public a proceeding as the injunction suit.” (p. 413.)
There is no reason to complain of the filing of the supplemental charges after the hearing was begun, as respondents were not denied an opportunity to meet them; nor is there any doubt as to the identity of the transcript upon which the abstracts of counsel on both sides are based and the arguments of counsel are founded. Detailed findings of fact were made by the commissioner which show repeated violations of the injunction by each of the respondents, and while the findings are attacked as unsupported by testimony, and also that testimony was given by witnesses unworthy of belief, a reading of the testimony leaves no doubt that the respondents are guilty of violating the judgment of injunction.
E. C. Rice, Fred Wannenwetsch, J. H. Fletcher, H. A. Thacker and P. K. Smith must, therefore, be adjudged to be in contempt. In assessing the punishment regard must be had to the authority vested in and the duties required of the several officers. Considering the greater power and larger responsibility of E. C. Rice, the mayor, and Fred Wannenwetsch, the chief of police, a fine of $500 will be assessed against each of them. The policemen, who held subordinate places and consequently had less responsibility, should