Jake Butler v. Perry

• Decision Date: 21 February 1916
• Docket Number: No. 182,182
• Citation: 60 L.Ed. 672,240 U.S. 328,36 S.Ct. 258
• Parties: JAKE BUTLER, Plff. in Err., v. J. W. PERRY, as Sheriff of Columbia County, Florida
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

240 U.S. 328

36 S.Ct. 258

60 L.Ed. 672

JAKE BUTLER, Plff. in Err.,

v J. W. PERRY, as Sheriff of Columbia County, Florida.

No. 182.

Submitted January 14, 1916.

Decided February 21, 1916.

Mr. Charles Cook Howell for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Thomas F. West, Attorney General of Florida, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McReynolds delivered the opinion of the court:

Chapter 6537, Laws of Florida (Acts of 1913, pp. 469, 474, 475), provides:

'See. 10. Every able-bodied male person over the age of twenty-one years, and under the age of forty-five years, residing in said county for thirty days or more continuously next prior to the date of making of the list by the board of county commissioners, or the date of the summons or notice to work, shall be subject, liable and required to work on the roads and bridges of the several counties for six days of not less than ten hours each in each year when summoned so to do, as herein provided; that such persons so subject to road duty may perform such services by an able-bodied substitute over the age of eighteen years, or in lieu thereof may pay to the road overseer on or before the day he is called upon to render such service the sum of $3, and such overseer shall turn into the county treasury of his county any and all moneys so paid to him, the same to be placed to the credit of the road and bridge fund and subject to the order of the board of county commissioners for road and bridge purposes; . . .

'Sec. 12. Any person or persons not exempt as aforesaid who shall fail to work on public roads of the several counties when required to do so, or to provide a substitute as herein provided, and shall neglect or refuse to make payment for the same, as hereinbefore provided, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not more than $50 or imprisoned in the county jail for not longer than thirty days.'

Plaintiff in error was convicted in the county judge's court, Columbia county, upon a charge of failing to work on a road, and sentenced to jail for thirty days. The circuit court granted a writ of habeas corpus; he was heard, remanded to the custody of the sheriff, and then released under bond. The supreme court of the state affirmed the action of the circuit court (67 Fla. 405, 66 So. 150), and the cause is here upon writ of error.

It is insisted that §§ 10 and 12, supra, are invalid because they undertake to impose involuntary servitude not as a punishment for crime, contrary to the 13th Amendment to the Federal Constitution; and also because their enforcement would deprive plaintiff of his liberty and property without due process of law, in violation of the 14th Amendment.

In view of ancient usage and the unanimity of judicial opinion, it must be taken as settled that, unless restrained by some constitutional limitation, a state has inherent power to require every able-bodied man within its jurisdiction to labor for a reasonable time on public roads near his residence without direct compensation. This is a part of the duty which he owes to the public. The law of England is thus declared in Blackstone's Commentaries, bk. 1, page 357:

'Every parish is bound of common right to keep the highroads that go through it in good and sufficient repair; unless by reason of the tenure of lands, or otherwise, this care is consigned to some particular private person. From this burthen no man was exempt by our ancient laws, whatever other immunities he might enjoy: this being part of the trinoda necessitas, to which every man's estate was subject; viz., expeditio contra hostem, arcium constructio, et pontium reparatio. For, though the reparation of bridges only is expressed, yet that of roads also must be understood; as in the Roman law, with respect to the construction and repairing of ways and bridges no class of men of whatever rank or dignity should be exempted.'

The trinoda necessitas was an obligation falling on all freemen, or at least on all free householders. Vinogradoff, English Society in the Eleventh Century, p. 82.

From Colonial days to the present time conscripted labor has been much relied on for the construction and maintenance of roads. The system was introduced from England, and, while it has produced no Appian Way, appropriateness to the circumstances existing in rural communities gave it general favor. Elliott, Roads & Streets, §§ 479, 480; Dill, Mun, Corp. 5th ed. § 1407, p. 2459, note; Cooley, Const. Lim. 7th ed. p. 736; Re Dassler, 35 Kan. 678, 12 Pac. 130; State v. Wheeler, 141 N. C. 773, 115 Am. St. Rep. 700, 53 S. E. 358, 5 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1139, note; Dennis v. Simon, 51 Ohio St. 223, 36 N. E. 832; State v. Rayburn, 2 Okla. Crim. Rep. 413, 22 L.R.A.(N.S.) 1067, 101 Pac. 1029, Ann. Cas. 1912A, 733; Sawyer v. Alton, 4 Ill. 127; State v. Halifax, 15 N. C. (4 Dev. L.) 345. In 1889 the statutes of twenty-seven states provided for such labor on public roads. Young's Recent Road Legislation.

The ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory declares: 'There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.' [1 Stat. at L. 53, note.]

In 1792 the territorial legislative body passed an act providing: 'That every male inhabitant of sixteen years of age and upwards...