2 Conn. Cir. Ct. 584 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1964
In a trial to the court the defendant was convicted, in four counts, of violating the Sunday laws, § 53-300 of the General Statutes, by keeping open a shop on four successive Sundays. He has appealed in respect to the second, third and fourth counts. He asks us to reverse the judgment as to these three counts because he was denied a continuance and was not given an opportunity to consult with counsel and because the court erred in its conclusions based on the subordinate facts and in its conclusion on all the evidence that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Matters relating to the trial are within the sound discretion of the presiding judge. In the case before us, the defendant and his counsel had been forewarned about future violations; a continuance of two weeks had then been granted, and during that period the defendant could have consulted counsel or retained other counsel and prepared a defense to any charges of future violations of the same statute. Under these circumstances, we see no abuse of discretion by the trial court in denying the request for a continuance.
In respect to the merits of the second, third and fourth counts, the court found the following facts, which are undisputed and amply supported by the evidence produced by the state. The defendant did not testify. He was the president, treasurer and majority stockholder of Warehouse Sales, Inc., a shop doing business in Danbury, and controlled its operations. Warehouse Sales, Inc., was open for
The pertinent provisions of § 53-300 are the following: “Any person who does, or requires an employee to do, any secular business or labor, except works of necessity or mercy, or, unless required by necessity or mercy, keeps open any shop . . . between the hours of twelve o’clock Saturday night and twelve o’clock Sunday night next following, shall be fined not more than fifty dollars.” The defendant claims that on all the evidence it was the corporation, Warehouse Sales, Inc., and not he that kept the shop open on the three Sundays. This argument is unsound. The statute, of great antiquity, was enacted in furtherance of a public policy to preserve the Lord’s day as a day of rest and worship free from secular activities. The language of the statute is clear and unambiguous; the legislative intent is to punish the individual offender no matter what his position is. To construe it as the defendant wishes to construe it would be to nullify its purpose. The fact that § 53-301, under the language “[n]o person, firm or corporation,” prohibits anyone engaged in the automobile business from keeping open a place of business on Sunday does not, contrary to the defendant’s contention, evidence a legislative intent that §53-300 should be given a meaning different from its express language. Section 53-301 was enacted at a different time under different circumstances. We are not concerned here with any criminal liability of the corporation.
No citation of authority is needed for the general principle that corporations must act through individuals and that the individual who violates the
The evidence is clear that the defendant was the president, treasurer and majority stockholder of the corporation and controlled its operations. He was in effect, as the defendant admits in his brief, the alter ego of the corporation.
The court was justified in concluding on all the evidence that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
In this opinion Jacobs and Levine, Js., concurred.