7 Ga. App. 417 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1910
Lead Opinion
Walker was convicted by the mayor of the city of Dawson of the violation of a certain city ordinance. He appealed from this judgment to the city council of Dawson, the judgment was affirmed, and he brought a petition for certiorari to the superior court, and, the certiorari being overruled, he brings error to this court. The ordinance which he was convicted of having violated is in the following language: “It shall be unlawful for any person to keep or have in his or her possession, within the limits of the city of Dawson, any spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors, intoxicating beverages, or other drinks of like character, for the purpose of disposing of such for the purpose of inducing trade, or by sale or barter. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to have any.room or place in said city for the purpose of social drinking, or for the purpose of keeping any drinks therein that are intoxicating in their nature, or to keep intoxicating liquors in any restaurant or other place of business for the benefit or convenience of customers, or to run anjr club or private room where intoxicating .drinks are served or permitted to be served, or liquors stored for drinking. It shall be unlawful for any person to act as agent for the purpose of delivering whisky or other intoxicating drinks to another within the limits of the city of Dawson.”
The evidence set out in response to the w-rit of certiorari is in sribstanee as follows: On Christmas eve three police officers of the city of Dawson went to the private residence of the defendant. He was a carpenter by trade, but kept no place of business. He was not at home. They went into his private residence and found a box in the closet in his kitchen, containing 25 pints of corn whisky, and, in the attic of one of the rooms, about two dozen, quarts of rye whisky in quart bottles. In the kitchen and in the other rooms of the house and under the house were also found a
. 1. That part of the ordinance which makes it a penal offense to keep intoxicating liquors in any restaurant or other place of business for the benefit or convenience of customers is clearly covered by the State law, and is for that reason not enforceable by the city. That part of the ordinance, however, has no application to the facts of the case, for the testimony is undisputed that the whisky was not in the place of business of the defendant, but in his private residence. The ordinance, with this exception, reasonably construed, is a proper exercise of the police power of the ¡municipality. If, however, the ordinance, or any part thereof, was intended to prohibit any citizen of the city of Dawson from keeping or storing intoxicating liquors in his private residence for the purpose of social drinking, or was intended to prevent the keep
The learned attorney for the city insists that, under the facts of the case, the defendant violated the last section of the ordinance, which makes it unlawful for any person “to act as agent for the purpose of delivering whisky or other intoxicating drinks to another within the limits of the city of Dawson.” We do not think that the act of the defendant in buying some whisky for several of his neighbors when he bought his own was a violation of this part of the ordinance. Such interpretation, we think, would be an unauthorized construction of this part of the ordinance. The ordinance was intended to prohibit a citizen from acting as .agent for the seller, or generally as an agent for the buyer. We think the evidence in the record, if it proves any violation of the ordinance, is applicable to that part of the ordinance which makes it a penal offense to “keep or have in his or her possession, within the limits of the city of Dawson, any spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors, intoxicating beverages, or other drinks of like character, for the purpose of . . salo or barter.” But we do not think that the evidence is sufficient to show that the defendant violated this part of the ordinance. The mere finding of intoxicating liquors
Instead of being the conservators of the law, such officials become its violators in the most reprehensible and dangerous form. It is the proud boast of the Anglo-Saxon that a man’s home is his castle, protected by the omnipresent and omnipotent, although invisible, spirit of the law, — a protection, in a land where the people are truly free, more invincible than armed men or gra lite walls. In this case it is shown by the undisputed evidence that without ■any authority of law, and, so far as the record discloses, without any reason to suspect that the law was being violated therein, the private home of a citizen, in his absence, was raided and his property found therein unlawfully taken therefrom. The officers who thus invaded the sanctity of this man’s home committed a double trespass,— a trespass against his personal security, and a trespass ■■against his private propertjr. If such unlawful invasions of the
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. This plaintiff in error had more liquor on hand than an ordinary day-laborer (and such the evidence shows him to be) would be expected to have for legitimate purposes. His explanation was not at all satisfactory. Any man,, rich or poor, who has whisky and whisky bottles hidden around in. his house from cellar to attic has no legal cause of complaint i£ the tribunal trying the case happens to hold more than a bare suspicion that he has been using it illegitimately.