18 Haw. 402 | Haw. | 1907
OPINION OF THE COURT BY
The defendant was charged July 8, 1907, before the district magistrate of Honolulu with selling in Honolulu July 6, 1907,
As the defendant, not being a foreign manufacturer, has not brought himself within the class who would be affected by the alleged unconstitutional discriminations, the fourth ground of appeal will not be considered.
“There is a point beyond which this court does not consider arguments of this sort for the purpose of invalidating the tax laws of a State on constitutional grounds. This limit has been fixed in many cases. Tt is that unless the party setting up the unconstitutionality of the state law belongs to the class for whose sake the constitutional protection is given, or the class primarily protected, this court does not listen to his objections, and will not go into imaginary cases, notwithstanding the seeming logic of the position that it must do so, because if for any reason, or as against any class embraced, the law is unconstitutional, it is void as to all.” Hatch v. Reardon, 204 U. S. 460.
There is no obvious reason — no distinction -based upon legislative objects which requires that a law to regulate sales of intoxicating liquors should be held to be less immune than a tax law from attack upon its constitutionality by persons not directly injured by the portions of the law alleged by them to be unconstitutional.
(1) Upon the defendant’s contention that the board of license commissioners is an unauthorized body being a court and under the supervision of. no other tribunal, it is to be observed that courts established for administration of public justice may have statutory jurisdiction over the subject of granting or refusing licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors or the jurisdiction may be given to a designated official or board which does not thereby become a court. “The judicial power of the Territory,” intended by the Organic Act, can be vested only “in one supreme court, circuit courts, and in such inferior courts as the legislature may from time to time establish.” The inferior courts with which judicial power of the
In determining whether to “grant, refuse, suspend, revoke, regulate and control licenses” the board may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths to them and take their testimony, and although this is a judicial function the right to exercise it is not of itself sufficient to constitute the board a court. Such bodies as boards of county supervisors, the board of health, boards of registration of voters, boards of inspectors of elections, or agriculture and forestry, animal inspectors, dental examiners, equalization of taxes, medical examiners, prison ■ inspectors and of education may be authorized by statute to administer oaths touching any matter or thing whereof they have jurisdiction or cognizance by law and to decide finally and without appeal such matters as properly come within their jurisdiction, and yet it would be a misnomer to classify such boards as courts of justice. They would be lawful bodies even if congress had enacted that no court could be established by flic territorial legislature and that the judicial power of the Territory should be vested solely in the supreme, circuit and district courts. See Ins. & Lumber Co. v. Macfarlane, 14 Haw. 489. Furthermore, the act fSec.b), in declaring that "The exercise of the power, authority and discretion by this act vested in the board shall be final in each case and shall not be reviewable by, or appealable to, any court or tribunal,” does not make the board independent of judicial supervision. Tts power, while “subject only to the limitations and directions in this act contained,” is strictly subordinado to those limitations and directions. Tf it assumes to do anything which is unauthorized by the act or declines to do what the act requires of it, observance of the law will be required by judicial authority when properly invoked. No review may be possible as long as the board observes the limitations and directions contained m
(2) We cannot sustain the defendant’s contention that he is deprived of his property by reason of anything contained in Act 119. It does not appear whether he bought his beer after or before April 30, 1907, the date of the approval of the act, but, if he bought it after, he did so with knowledge that he could not sell unless authorized by the license which he then held or by a license which he expected to obtain under the new act. If he bought before that date, he had no assurance or right to believe' that the license would be renewed to enable him to sell after its expiration, if the act should continue in force, or that the act would not be repealed.
“If the pxiblic safety or the public morals require the-discontinuance of any manufacture or traffic, the hand of the legislature cannot be stayed from providing for its discontinu anee, by any incidental inconvenience which individuals or corporations may suffer. All rights are held subject to the police poAver of the State.” Beer Co. v. Massachusetts, 97 U. S. 32.
If he bought after the act aa7RR approved, he also kneAv that he had no vested right to a license under it. It is unnecessary to discuss the question further, since the Organic Act, Sec. 55, provides, “nor shall spirituous or intoxicating liquors be sold except under such regulations and restrictions as the territorial legislature shall provide,” so that selling Avould be prohibited in the absence of territorial legislation regulating or restricting it. As the present law expressly saves to him any rights 'accrued under Act 67, Laws of 3 905, if he had any cause of complaint it Avould be that the act under Avhich he was licensed made no provision for selling liquors Avhich should be on hand at the expiration of his license.
(3) We do not sustain the defendant’s claim that the act is inAralid in containing more than one subject, namely, prohibition as well as regulation of sales, for the act does not prohibit to any further extent than is necessary or proper in
'The' well known reason for requiring a simple and explanatory title in order that law makers may not be misled in passing bills containing subjects of which they are not reasonably apprised by the title has been stated in numerous decisions of this court, u. Sec. 45 Org. Act. “When the general purpose is declared in the title, the means for its accomplishment, being a -penalty, will be presumed to be intended as a necessary incident.” Territory v. Wong Feart, 17 Haw. 355. The act entitled “An Act To Enact The .Revised Laws Of Hawaii,” embraced but one, subject and that expressed in its title. In Re Tom Pong, Ib. 566. “This provision, as it seems to us, has a proper relation to the other provisions. The various provisions are not incongruous; they have a natural connection with each other, and are fairly embraced in one subject, which is (unbraced in the title of the act. The presumption is that the act is valid. The provision of the Organic Act which is now invoked should he liberally construed.” Tibbetts v. Damon, Ib. 203.
The most prominent feature, perhaps, of the act under consideration is not that sales are declared to be unlawful if not licensed in conformity with its requirements but that the granting of licenses subject to -the requirements and directions of the act is discretionary'not, as formerly, with the minister of
Counsel for defendant wish us to construe Sec. 4 of the act as giving the board of commissioners prohibitory powers beyond anything that would properly fall within the regulation referred to in the title, and then declare the title too narrow as not including these power's. .But it is the duty of courts to construe the language of an act, if possible, so as to avoid unconstitutionality (U. S. v. Coombs, 12 Pet. 72,) and we should therefore rather be justified in holding that the prohibitory powers which might he implied from Sec. 4 could be exercised only to such extent as should not interfere with the object of regulation expressed in the title. Myer v. Car Co., 102 U. S. 1, 12. To declare the act to be invalid because its title is too narrow to include the provision for boards of license commissioners or statement of the powers vested in them would be an unjust aspersion upon legislative intelligence and would unwarrantably frustrate the exercise of legislative power.
The judgment appealed from is affirmed.