Adams v. Chesapeake Oyster & Fish Co.

• Decision Date: 02 October 1905
• Parties: ADAMS et al. v. CHESAPEAKE OYSTER & FISH CO.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

82 P. 528

34 Colo. 219

ADAMS et al. v. CHESAPEAKE OYSTER & FISH CO.

Supreme Court of Colorado

October 2, 1905

Appeal from District Court, Arapahoe County; P. L. Palmer, Judge.

Action by the Chesapeake Oyster & Fish Company against Frank Adams and others, constituting the fire and police board of the city of Denver, and another. From a judgment perpetuating a temporary injunction, defendants appeal. Reversed.

H. A. Lindsley, City Atty., and H. L. Ritter, for appellants.

Milton Smith, for appellee.

MAXWELL J.

The complaint in this case alleges that the plaintiff is the owner of a restaurant at 1619-1650 Champa street, and a saloon at 905 Sixteenth street, city of Denver, and is conducting a restaurant and saloon business in said premises respectively; that the amount of money invested in the premises is $50,000; that the saloon business is conducted under a license of the city of Denver; that under the saloon and restaurant is a basement, in which liquors and supplies for the restaurant and saloon are stored; that in the conduct of its business plaintiff furnishes wines and other liquors to its restaurant from the saloon on weekdays, and from the storeroom on Sundays; that the fire and police board of the city of Denver, through its chief of police, has at various times notified and commanded plaintiff to desist from furnishing liquors to its patrons in the restaurant on Sundays, under threat of arrest, on the alleged ground that such acts and conduct of plaintiff were in violation of sections 739 and 743 of Ordinance No. 101 of the series of 1898 of the city of Denver; that, for the purpose of ascertaining and investigating as to whether or not the orders of said police board were being complied with, police officers in citizens' clothes and uniform come upon the premises on the Sabbath, thereby causing trepidation and uneasiness among the patrons of the restaurant, and thereby deterring people from patronizing said restaurant on the Sabbath; that by reason thereof great damage has been suffered to the extent of more than $200 each and every day that, unless the fire and police board and the chief of police are restrained from enforcing such orders and keep their officers away from said premises, the business of the plaintiff will be totally destroyed, and the continual arrest of the officers of plaintiff would result in a multiplicity of actions, and that plaintiff has no plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law; that the sections of the ordinances under which the arrests were threatened had no reference to the serving, furnishing, or selling of liquor to the patrons of a restaurant, but refer only to the keeping open of what is known as a tippling house or saloon proper; that the provisions of said sections do not restrict the right to sell or serve liquors on the Sabbath, but only prohibit the keeping open on said day of any saloon, dramshop, or tippling house. Upon...