98 N.Y.S. 553 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1906
Lead Opinion
The action was brought against the defendants William McAdoo, police commissioner; William J. Eggers, an acting police captain, and James F. Hally, a police captain in the police department of the city of Hew York, to restrain these officers from keeping, stationing and maintaining upon or in front of the plaintiff’s place of business any officers under their command, or from unlawfully entering the premises of' the plaintiff, or from otherwise continuing to oppress the plaintiff and trespassing upon the premises occupied by him, and to recover the sum of. $5,000. The action was originally brought in Kings county, and upon the complaint and affidavits a temporary injunction was granted by a justice of the Supreme Court, with an order to show cause why that injunction should not be continued until the trial of the action. In answer to the motion to continue the injunction, there were submitted the affidavits of the captains and other police officers stating that they were of the opinion that the premises of the plaintiff and the telephones therein were being used for the purpose of operating and conducting a poolroom, in violation of section 351 of the Penal Code, and stating the facts upon which their conviction was founded.
Upon the hearing of this motion the Special Term continued the injunction restraining the defendants, and each of them and the officers under their command, from maintaining policemen or police officers in front of or adjacent to the plaintiff’s premises; from keeping, stationing and maintaining in front of or adjacent to the plaintiff’s premises, or in the halls or at the doorway leading thereto, any of the officers under the command of the defendants, or either' of them, against the will of the plaintiff, or from unlawfully interfering with the customers and patrons of the plaintiff’s said business, or persons desiring to do business with the plaintiff upon said premises ; and, further, from “ unlawfully interfering with the possession or control of said premises by plaintiff herein, or from unlawfully trespassing upon said premises, or from removing or destroying any of the plaintiff’s chattels or property in said room occupied by plaintiff without due warrant or process of law.” Subsequently, upon
The defendants are police officers, whose duties it is to arrest persons violating the briminal law of this State. They are responsible for any unauthorized or illegal use of tliis power conferred upon them by law for the protection, of the people and for the punishment of criminals, but a court of equity has no jurisdiction to determine whether a person has'or has'not been guilty of a crime, or whether a person is about to commit a crime for which he should be arrested. The .foundation of the plaintiff’s complaint is that the police have charged him with being engaged-in a.business which the law has made criminal; that he is innocent of the charge; that the business in which he is engaged is not criminal, and he, therefore, asks a court of equity to determine that he is not committing a crime, that his business is not criminal, and to enjoin the officers from interfering with his business; or with those wishing to do business with -him, and the court has entertained this application and restrained the police officers from interfering with the plaintiff’s, business, which they claim is unlawful and criminal.
I supposed it had been definitely settled in this State that a court of equity has no jurisdiction in such ay action. That persons engaged in a business, which is claimed by the police to be criminal . have from time to time attempted to have the question as to whether it is or is not criminal determined by a court of equity upon affidavit, is quite familiar to those, who have been engaged in the administration of justice in New York. Prize fights, horse racing, poolrooms, liquor selling without a license and other' occupations prohibited by law have been carried on for years under the projection of injunctions issued by courts of equity restraining the police from interfering with the persons engaged in these various occupations; but where the questions have been presented to the appellate courts it has almost uniformly been held that a court of equity has no jurisdiction to determine such questions, and that a person cannot, under the guise of an allegation that the police in' the performance of their duty of suppressing. crime and arresting criminals are interfering with his business, obtain an injunction restraining the police from interfering with such business or arresting
This case,, it seems to me, must set at rest any- question as to the right, of the police to interfere with a business which is claimed to be carried on in violation of law, where the effect of an. injunction would be to prevent the police from enforcing the criminal law The cases cited by the plaintiff, decided in the second department, must he deemed overruled by Delaney v. Flood (supra).
It follows that the order appealed from, should be reversed, with ten dollars costs' and disbursements, and the motion to continue the injunction denied, with ten dollars' costs, and the temporary injunction vacated. ■' -.
Clarke, J., concurred; Laughlin, J., concurred in result; O’Brien, P. J., dissented.
Dissenting Opinion
The case of Delaney v. Flood (183 N. Y. 323) is cited by Mr. Justice Ingraham as authority for the proposition that .equity will never interfere to restrain a trespass or prevent police officers from doing unlawful acts. If that case, so decided it would be- our duty to follow it. I do not think, however, it is an authority for the proposition so broadly stated by Mr. Justice Ingraham. . It was therein said: “ The question, in substance, is whether equity will intervene to restrain the police authorities from stationing officers outside of aplace having a liquor tax certificate, when such authorities suspect that place of being conducted as a disorderly house * * * which is likely to be raided at any moment, * * *. The pivotal point around which this question revolves is, that the plaintiff is engaged in the sale of intoxicating liquors.” And in conclud
It will be noticed, therefore, that the purpose sought by the 'injunction was to restrain the police from enforcing the criminal law," which they were attempting to do by exercising the right of inspection expressly given by section 315 of the Greater Hew York charter (Laws of 1901, chap. 466, as amd. by Laws of 1905, chap. 621). The Delaney and other cases referred to were all instances wherein injunctions had been refused because, first, the plaintiff was conducting a business requiring an excise or other license, or coming within section 315 of the Greater Hew York charter, or, second, where the acts threatened affected no property rights, of which Davis v. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (75 N. Y. 362), also referred to by Mr. Justice Ingraham and cited in Delaney v. Flood (supra), is an illustration.
Here the purpose sought by the injunction was to restrain the police officers from doing acts which were clearly acts, of trespass with respect to private individuals doing what was presumably a private business, and prevent them from forcibly invading the plaintiff’s premises without warrant or process of law. There is no claim that the business which, the plaintiff claimed to be conducting was one that required a license, or that it was within section 315 of the Greater Hew York charter (as amd. supra). The plaintiff was a private citizen conducting what he asserted was a legal business; and the complaint is that the police, without warrant, had forcibly entered his premises and destroyed property, and upon his stating that he intended — because he had a right to pursue that business—to 're-establish it, the police replied that they would, in that" event, return and again forcibly enter the premises and injure the property which he was using in that business. In other words, they proposed to repeat the trespass and destroy property without warrant of law as often, as plaintiff attempted to do business.
I do not think Delaney v. Flood (supra) or any other case has gone to the extent of holding that the police have the right to invade houses and places of business without warrant, where such
Order reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements; the ' motion to continue the injunction denied, with ten dollars costs, anil the temporary injunction vacated. Order filed."
Concurrence Opinion
I concur on. the ground that the facts of this case show' that it comes within the doctrine announced in Delaney v. Flood (183 N. Y. 323).
