63 So. 606 | La. | 1913
At about 1 o’clock on a Sunday morning, a fire occurred in the town of Mansfield which destroyed all the buildings upon a certain block of which the defendant is part owner, all of which were wooden. The fire might have spread much more than it did if the direction of the wind had been different. This gave the townspeople a scare, and set them to talking ab:out establishing fire limits. The defendant, no doubt from having heard this talk, and with a view to cut ahead of the town authorities, set about at once, in the forenoon of that same Sunday, to purchasing lumber and making arrangements for rebuilding; and early Monday morning had carpenters at work beginning the construction of a wooden building. While he was doing this, the town council was meeting and enacting an ordinance establishing fire limits that included the block in question; and in the forenoon of Monday the defendant was verbally notified by the town marshal of the ordinance having been adopted. The ordinance was not a law, however, until promulgated, and this could not be done until the next publication of the local newspaper. Meantime defendant went on with the construction of the wooden building as rapidly as he could; and as soon as possible after the promulgation of the ordinance the present suit was brought enjoining his further progress.
This provision applies only to the Legislature, not to town councils. Callaghan v. Alexandria, 52 La. Ann. 1013, 27 South, 540.
An ex post facto law is a law which retrospectively makes an act criminal. Locke v. N. O., 4 Wall. 172, 18 L. Ed. 334. Defendant is not being prosecuted for crime. Though, by the way, he makes this fact also a ground of attack upon this ordinance, which contains provisions (not now sought to be enforced, however), denouncing penalties for its violation.
The judgment appealed from is set aside, and the injunction is made perpetual. The defendant to pay all costs.