97 Mo. App. 212 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1902
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The amended act requires that the petition for the license “shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county court not less than ten days before the first day of the court to which it is to be presented, and remain on file for public inspection, and by the said clerk laid before the court at the first term thereafter; and all
The obvious purpose of the amendment requiring, the petition to be oh file for at least ten days for public inspection before a license shall'be granted is to afford the public, whose business, good neighborhood, or peace might be affected by the location of a dramshop in their midst, an opportunity to make prbtest and to defend their property and personal interests against the proposed dramshop; in other words, to make the public a party to the proceedings and to afford it an opportunity to be heard in opposition to the granting of the license. If this be so then the provision is a jurisdictional one and a license issued on a petition, which had not been on file and open for public inspection for at least ten days, would, in the language of the amendment, “be void.”
It has been repeatedly held by this court that all the jurisdictional facts, to authorize the granting of a dramshop license by the county court or excise commissioner, must affirmatively appear somewhere on the face of the proceedings. State v. Police Commissioners, 14 Mo. App. 297; State ex rel. Campbell v. Heege, 37 Mo. App. (St. L.) 338; State ex rel. Reider v. Moniteau Co. Ct., 45 Mo. App. (K. C.) 387; State ex rel. v. Mayor and Board of Alderman of Neosho, 57 Mo. App. (St. L.) 192; State ex rel. v. Higgins, 71 Mo. App. 180. This ruling is supported both on account of the nature of the subject-matter and on the rule that the jurisdiction of inferior tribunals, not proceeding according to the course of the common law, must appear affirmatively on the face of the proceedings. Kidd et al. v. Guibar, 63 Mo. 342; Howard v. Clark et al., 43 Mo. 344; Sanders v. Rains et al., 10 Mo. 770.
The return of the excise commissioner to the writ
This action was not only irregular and premature, but was in excess of the jurisdiction of the excise commissioner. He had no jurisdiction to pass upon the petition and application until the petition had been on file in his office for at least ten days and open to the inspection of the public. For want of jurisdiction to issue the license at the time it was issued, the license is void.
The judgment is affirmed.