City of St. Louis v. Atlantic Quarry and Construction Company
Decision Date | 29 June 1912 |
Parties | CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. ATLANTIC QUARRY AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Appellant |
Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from St. Louis City Court of Criminal Correction. -- Hon. H N. Moore, Judge.
Reversed.
David Goldsmith for appellant.
The ordinance on which this proceeding is based is unconstitutional. In re Kelso, 147 Cal. 609; 2 Dillon on Mun. Corp. (5 Ed.), sec. 695, p. 1061; Charter of St. Louis, art. 3, sec. 34; Cotting v. Stock Yards, 183 U.S. 112; Soon Hing v. Crowley, 183 U.S. 709; State v. Bixman, 162 Mo. 71; St. Louis v Spiegel, 90 Mo. 587; St. Louis v. Spiegel, 75 Mo. 145.
Lambert E. Walther and William E. Baird for respondent.
The city of St. Louis has the power to prescribe the conditions upon which a stone quarry may be operated; the provision in the ordinance in question that a special ordinance shall be secured for the operation of a quarry, and the provision that this condition shall not affect those who were operating quarries at the time of the passage of the ordinance in question, are not discriminative, but are the exercise of a valid charter power. Charter, art. 3, sec. 26, cls. 6; Dillon on Mun. Corps. (5 Ed.), 598; City v. Howard, 119 Mo 47; City v. Fischer, 167 Mo. 654; Fischer v. City, 194 U.S. 361.
OPINION
This cause was instituted in the first district police court of the city of St. Louis, August 15, 1905, by filing the following statement:
A judgment for one hundred dollars was appealed to the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction where a trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for the same amount, which is brought here by appeal. The ordinance mentioned in the statement is as follows:
[McQuillin's Municipal Code, p. 553, sec. 615.]
The testimony tended to show that the defendant at the time charged was doing the work complained of for the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, as assignee of Louis Skrainka and Michael Hanick, in pursuance of a contract in writing between the said association as party of the first part and the said Skrainka and Hanick as party of the second part the material portion of which is as follows:
The work consisted in reducing the land to the proper level for the tracks of the Terminal Association by removing the material, consisting of "strippings" and solid rock to a depth of from a few inches to twenty feet, and also removing solid rock below the grade so as to make a hole in which to put the "strippings," which would otherwise have had to be moved, at great cost, to a dumping ground at East St. Louis. At the time this proceeding was instituted, a hole had been excavated about two hundred and fifty feet long, eighty feet wide and seventy-odd feet deep. The rock to be moved was broken and crushed on the ground, to be used as provided in the contract. The work was done under the supervision of the engineer of the Terminal Association. The title to the land is in a trustee for the Terminal Association, which is in possession.
The defendant requested the following instruction, among others: "The court declares the law to be that if the Terminal Railroad Association at the time mentioned in the complaint herein was owner of the property described in the complaint herein, and as such owner made and entered into the contract in writing with Hanick and Skrainka which was read in evidence and that all the work of excavating was done under and by virtue and authority of said contract, then the defendant is not guilty of a violation of section 615 of the revised ordinances of the city of St. Louis."
It was refused and defendant excepted.
During the trial, and in its motion for a new trial, the defendant insisted upon the several constitutional questions suggested in this opinion.
Municipal corporations, with us, are created by the statute. They possess no powers or faculties not conferred upon them, either expressly or by fair implication, by the law which creates them, or by other statutes applicable to them. [ Every investigation, therefore, relating to their powers, must be conducted from the stand-point of the law to which they owe their existence. The charter of the city of St. Louis is founded upon express provisions of the Constitution itself, which direct not only that it shall be subject to the Constitution and laws of the State, but that it shall be in harmony with them. It also requires "a house of legislation," leaving no doubt as to the legislative character of the municipal assembly which was created by its authority. [Constitution, art. 9, sec. 22.]
Among the legislative powers expressly delegated by the charter to the mayor and municipal assembly (art. 3, sec 26, clause 6) are the following: "To establish and regulate hospitals, and to secure the general health of the inhabitants by any measure necessary; to regulate stone quarries and quarrying of stone, and the slaughter of animals; provide for the erection, management and regulation of...
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