85 Neb. 600 | Neb. | 1909
This is an injunction case tried on the pleadings and the affidavits of the respective parties. No oral testimony was offered on either side. The case is the outgrowth of a contention that arose between the parties over applications made to the village board of Barneston, in Gage county, for the issuance of saloon licenses in the fall of 1908. The district court found the petition herein did not state a cause of action, dismissed the case, and plaintiffs appeal.
The appellants Yogel and Wood, who were plaintiffs in the trial court, and are hereinafter called plaintiffs, were remonstrators before the village board against the issuance of the licenses. In their petition plaintiffs allege the corporate capacity of the village and the respective official positions of the defendants Rawley, Moran, McKelvey, Gerdes and Wyatt, who constitute the village board, and A. D. Spencer, who is village clerk. They make Edward W. Severance and John W. Wolken, who are applicants for saloon licenses, parties defendant, and also Charles Cliurda, alleging the latter is the real party in interest with respect to the application of Wolken. Plaintiffs also allege, in substance, that Severance and others in Bameston, who are actively interested in having a saloon license issued to him, have openly threatened to do great bodily injury to plaintiffs in the event they filed a remonstrance against the application of Severance, and that the latter and defendant Churda instigated one Frank Pisar to assault the plaintiffs, and that in pursuance of such instigation he struck and otherwise maltreated them without any
After motions to vacate and to strike certain of the affidavits from the files were overruled, the defendant members of the village council and the village clerk filed a joint answer denying generally all the allegations of the petition, but admitted the official capacity in which they were sued, and admitted the board was about to proceed to consider the 'applications. Defendants Severance, Wolken and Chur da filed their joint answer making the same admissions that were made by the members of the village board, but denying generally all other allegations in the petition. Plaintiffs’ reply was a denial in the usual form of the allegations of the answer.
In support of their respective positions the plaintiffs and defendants together offered in evidence the affidavits
A sameness with respect to the allegations of defendants’ affidavits has not escaped our notice, but the same feature, and to perhaps as great an extent, seems to characterize the affidavits of plaintiffs. From a careful scrutiny of the record we are not convinced that the plaintiffs are without a remedy at law, or by appeal from the action of the board for the adjustment of the grievances of which they complain. In view of the record and the authorities applicable thereto, we are constrained to hold that plaintiffs have not shown a clear right to the issuance of the
The contention is made by plaintiffs that the village ordinance of Barneston regulating the issuance of saloon licenses was not lawfully passed, aproved and published. The record discloses that on August 11, 1908, a special meeting of the village board was called by chairman Rawrley to meet the following evening at 8 o’clock at the village clerk’s office for the purpose of considering and voting upon the question of passing a liquor license ordinance. Section 43, art. I, ch. 14, Comp. St. 1909, among others, authorizes the chairman to convene the village board in special session, and the call issued by that official seems to have met the requirements of the statute. The object of the meeting was stated in the notice, and service thereof was accepted by all the members of the board by subscrib
A supplemental brief was submitted to us by plaintiffs after the oral argument, wherein it is contended that, if the licenses are permitted to issue, the saloons that will be opened up in pursuance thereof Avill constitute a nuisance. From the reply brief of defendants filed in response thereto, there appears to be a difference of opinion between the parties on this feature of the case, Avhich in the present state of the record Ave are precluded from determining. The record fails to disclose grounds sufficient to warrant an inquiry into the subject urged in the supplemental brief of plaintiffs.
Finding no reversible error, the judgment of the trial court must be, and it hereby is,
Affirmed.