148 Minn. 127 | Minn. | 1921
Defendant was convicted in the municipal court of the city of Minneapolis of the violation of a city ordinance and appealed from an order denying a new trial.
The material portion of the ordinance charged to have been.violated, adopted by the city council on March 14, 1916, provides in substance as follows:
Section 1. No person shall hereafter install or open any lumber-yard or erect any building for the sale or storage of lumber within the city of Minneapolis without the consent of the city council.
Subsequent sections provide for the issuance of permits on application to the city council.
It appears from the record that prior to the passage of the ordinance defendant was a dealer in new and second-hand lumber and building
It is contended by defendant in support of the appeal: (1) That the city council was without authority to enact the ordinance; (2) conceding the authority, that the ordinance is arbitrary and unreasonable, and therefore unconstitutional and void; and (3) that the trial court erred in excluding certain evidence tendered by defendant for the purpose of showing that, in denying his application for a license or permit, the city council arbitrarily discriminated against him.
“To regulate the piling of lumber, shingles or lath in said city, and to require any person maintaining any lumber, shingle and lath pile or mill wood yard in said city to remove the same when the same is or may become dangerous to any building, buildings or other property near the same; * * * Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall interfere with the limits within [which] such lumber, shingles, lath and mill wood and piles may not be piled as now established by ordinance of said city, or with the fire limits of said city, as now ex
It cannot seriously be doubted that the matter of the location, and to an extent the condition and care of lumber-yards, where large quantities of lumber and building material are accumulated in piles and tiers of piles, are matters proper for appropriate police regulation and control. The location of such yards may, even though properly cared for by the owner, become a fire menace and a source of danger to and destruction of surrounding property, a rendezvous for thieves and other violators of the law, and their location at least should be within control of the proper municipal authorities of every city and village having a population and built up district sufficiently large to render them or their use a menace to public order and safety. The legislature could itself by appropriate statutory provisions regulate the subject, and may delegate the authority to local municipalities. That the authority is fully vested in the city of Minneapolis by the quoted provisions of its charter is clear. It is there granted in clear terms and is in no way restricted by the proviso added thereto, as above quoted, except perhaps that regulations imposed by city ordinances existing at the time the present charter power was granted may not be changed. But whether the earlier regulations may be changed or modified is not here involved. The authority thus conferred upon the city is full'and complete and sustains the ordinance in question.
The extension of defendant’s yard was in point of substance and fact a new yard, was a violation of the ordinance, and it does not matter that actual sales of lumber were not made in the new yard. The fact remains that defendant accumulated lumber therein in piles and otherwise which he intended for sale, and it is wholly immaterial whether a sale be made within the confines of the new yard, in the office across the street in the old yard, or in a down town office, should one be there conducted.
Finding no error in the record the order appealed from is affirmed-