134 P. 558 | Utah | 1913
These are two cases by agreement consolidated on this appeal. Tooele City in one of the cases filed a complaint in the justice court charging the defendant with selling intoxicating liquors in violation of a city ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquors; in the other for maintaining a common nuisance, also in violation of the ordinance (section 403) hereafter referred to. The defendant demurred to both complaints, challenging the validity of the ordinance. He was convicted on both charges and' appealed to the district court. There the demurrers were sustained, the actions dismissed, and the defendant discharged. The city appeals.
Now it is claimed that inasmuch as the legislature of the state has itself prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquors where the voters thereof have declared against sale, and itself declared the things enumerated in the ordinance to be ■common nuisances, it was not competent for the municipality to also legislate upon these subjects; but, if it was, it was required to fix the same fines and penalties fixed by the legislature for a violation of the statute in such particulars; ¡and that this could not be done because in certain particulars the fine prescribed by the statute is in excess of that authorized to be prescribed by a municipality. These contentions have all been decided against the demurrants in the recent case of American Fork City v. Charlier, 43 Utah, —■—, 134 Pac. 739.
We can, on an appeal and a record such as this, indicate our views on the law and establish a precedént for future similar cases, but we cannot disturb the judgment of dismissal and discharge and reinstate the case.