156 Ind. 379 | Ind. | 1901
It appears from the record that appellant, after giving the notice required by law, filed, at the March term, 1896, of the board of commissioners of Porter county an application for a license'to .sell, intoxicating liquors in Boone township, Porter county.- That at the .proper time, in conformity with the provisions of section nine of. the act of 1895 (Acts 1895, p. 248), known as the Nicholson law, a remonstrance signed by a majority of the legal’voters of said, township was filed against granting < appellant said license. That the board of commissioners refused to grant said license on account of the insufficiency of the bond tendered by said appellant. Appellant thereupon appealed to the Porter Circuit Court, but subsequently dismissed said appeal. Afterwards, after giving the notice required by law, appellant filed, at the December term, 1897, of said board of commissioners, an application for license to sell intoxicating liquors, under the laws of this State, at Hebron, in said Boone township. Said board refused to grant said license for want of jurisdiction, on account of said remonstrance filed before the March term, 1896, under the provisions of said section nine of the Nicholson law. Appellant appealed .to the court below, where the license was refused for the same -reason.
Said section nine of the act of 1895, commonly knQwn as the Nicholson law, provides that' “If, three days before any regular session of the board of commissioners .of any county a remonstrance in writing, signed by a majority of the legal voters of any township or ward -in any city situated in said county, shall be filed with the auditor of the county against the granting of. a license to any applicant for the sale of'spirituous,'vinous, malt, or other intoxicating liquors under the law of the State of Indiana, with the privilege-of allowing the same to be drunk on the premises where sold
Appellant insists that the two years’ limitation .in said section nine is unconstitutional and void. The constitutionality of said section nine was sustained by this court in State v. Gerhardt, 145 Ind. 439, 468-472; Flynn v. Taylor, 145 Ind. 533, 537. It is true that the two years’ limitation was not involved in those cases, .but the reasoning in State v. Gerhardt, supra, and the case, cited therein -conclusively sustain the constitutional validity of said provision. When the remonstrance signed by a majority of the legal voters.of Boone township was filed in the auditor’s- office, before the March term, 1896, of the board of commissioners, in conformity with the provisions of said section nine, said board had no power to grant said license. State v. Gerhardt, supra; Flynn v. Taylor, supra, 536; Sutherland v. McKinney, 146 Ind. 611, 613.
The bond required of a person before a license to sell intoxicating' liquors under the laws of this State can be issued to him must be approved by the' county auditor, and filed in his office. §7279- Burns 1894, §5315 R. S. 1881' and Horner 1897. We do not know of' any law requiring that such bond be tendered,, to the board of commissioners for their approval, or-that authorizes the board to refuse a license on account of the insufficiency of such bond.
. The court below, therefore, did, not. err in-.refusing to grant said license to appellant.. Judgment affirmed..