Pеtitioner was convicted of violating an ordinance of the city of Fort Bragg, Hendocino County, prohibiting traffic in intoxiсating liquors, and he was sentenced to pay a fine of $225, and in default of the payment thereof to be imprisoned until its sаtisfaction at the rate of one day’s imprisonment for each dollar of said fine.
Three contentions are mаde by petitioner: “1. That the ordinance is without the powers of the board of trustees of the city; 2. That the ordinancе is invalid for the reason that it attempts to delegate to the Congress of the United States legislative powers vestеd only in the city and its board of trustees; 3. That the judgment so far as it purports to adjudge imprisonment in default of payment of finе is without the powers given to the recorder’s court by the ordinance.”
The rule against the delegation of legislative authority does not prоhibit such reference to the act of another legislative body. If the ordinance had set out specifically the exemptions provided in said Volstead Act and the definition therein contained of intoxicating liquors, petitioner, of course, could not, and would not, urge this point. ' But the effect of the reference to said provisions of the act is to make them a part of the ordinance. If we grant that more apt language might have been chosen to express the intention of the trustees and that it might be considered more satisfactory if said exemptions and said definition hаd been expressly set forth in the ordinance, no criticism of that kind would be of sufficient gravity to justify the writ of habeas corpus.
No doubt difficulty is sometimеs experienced in making application of the rule, but if nothing is left to the judgment of another agency and the ordinance or statute fully expresses the will and intention of the legislative body on the subject, there is no room for the clаim that there has been a delegation of authority, although reference for existing facts may be had to other sources. (6 R. C. L. 165;
Dowling
v.
Lancashire Ins. Co.,
We are satisfied that there is no substantial merit in any of the contentions of petitioner and the writ is therefore discharged and the petitioner remanded.
Finch, P. J., and Hart, J., concurred.
