193 F. 986 | 9th Cir. | 1912
The statutes of Alaska (section 468 of Carter’s Code of Criminal Procedure Alaska), as amended by the act of Congress of February 6, 1909 (35 Stats. 602), provide for two classes of licenses to sellers of liquor in Alaska: A barroom license, for which the licensee pays $1,000, and a wholesale license, for which he pays $2,000, per annum. The plaintiff in error brought an action against the defendant in error in the court below, alleging that the latter obtained on'November 1, 1910, a barroom liquor license from
The single question presented on the appeal is whether in Alaska a civil action may be brought to recover the license fee in a case where the defendant has thus violated the law. Those statutes make no provision, either in express terms or by implication, for the recovery of the fee by such an action. Section 472 of the Criminal Code provides that: “Any one engaged in the sale of intoxicating liquor, as specified in this act, in the District of Alaska, who is required by it to have a license, as.herein specified, without first having obtained a license to do so as herein provided, or any person who shall engage in such sale in any portion of the district where the sale thereof is prohibited, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $2,000 or be imprisoned for not less than one month nor more than one year.”
Section 474 prescribes the method of procedure in prosecutions for violations of the act.
It is the general rule, sustained by the authorities, without exception so far as we are advised, that where a statute provides for the payment of a license fee as the condition of doing any specified business, and also provides that a violator of the act shall, upon conviction, be punished by fine or imprisonment, the remedy by prosecution and punishment so prescribed by the statute is exclusive, unless there is some special provision of law which permits the prosecution of a civil action to recover the license fee. Hencke v. Standiford, 66 Ark. 535, 52 S.W. 1; Chicago v. Enright, 27 Ill.App. 559; State v. Piazza, 66 Miss. 426, 6 So. 316; State v. Adler, 68 Miss. 487, 9 So. 645; United States v. Claflin, 97 U.S. 546, 24 L.Ed. 1082; City of Carondelet v. Picot, 38 Mo. 125; City of Camden v. Allen, 26 N.J.Law, 398; 23 Cyc. 151; 17 Am. & Eng.Enc. of Law, 272.
The judgment is affirmed.