Anti-Vice Committee of Shreveport v. Simon

• Decision Date: 03 April 1922
• Docket Number: 24712
• Citation: 91 So. 851,151 La. 494
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: ANTI-VICE COMMITTEE OF SHREVEPORT v. SIMON et al

91 So. 851

151 La. 494

ANTI-VICE COMMITTEE OF SHREVEPORT v. SIMON et al

No. 24712

Supreme Court of Louisiana

April 3, 1922

Rehearing Denied by the Whole Court, May 15, 1922

Appeal from First Judicial District Court, Parish of Caddo; E. P Mills, Judge.

Action by the Anti-Vice Committee of Shreveport against S. B. Simon and others. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal.

Reversed, exceptions sustained, and suit dismissed.

Lewell C. Butler, of Shreveport, for appellants.

W. B Hamilton, of Shreveport, for appellee.

ST. PAUL, J. PROVOSTY, C. J., LAND, OVERTON, and BAKER, JJ dissent as to right of association to sue.

OPINION

ST. PAUL, J.

This is an action to suppress an immoral house under the provisions of Act No. 47 of 1918. Plaintiff is a voluntary and unincorporated association, and the defendants have filed two exceptions to the petition: (1) That plaintiff is not such a legal entity as can appeal in court otherwise than in the name of the persons composing it; and (2) that plaintiff did not obtain from the district judge a certificate that it was acting in good faith and not for any improper purpose, as required by the act.

I.

In general an unincorporated association "cannot appear in a court of justice, but in the individual name of all the members who compose it." C. C. art. 446. Hence the question is whether this act gives to such associations the right to appear in a court of justice otherwise than as above. Now this statute (section 2) says simply:

"* * * The district attorney in the name * * * of the parish * * * and any corporation or association formed for the suppression of vice, and any citizen of the parish, may maintain in a court of competent jurisdiction an action perpetually to enjoin and abate said nuisance. * * *"

It therefore only creates a cause of action in favor of "any association formed for the suppression of vice"; but, on the other hand, nothing therein indicates that the right of action is to be exercised by unincorporated associations in a manner different from what it would be for any other cause of action belonging to such associations.

II.

The statute further provides (section 2) that

"No action shall be brought under this act by any one other than the district attorney until the applicant has obtained from the district judge of any district court a certificate that in the opinion of the judge the applicant is acting in good faith and not for any improper purpose."

Now this action was brought April 12, 1921, and the only certificate produced and relied upon by plaintiff is in the words and figures following, to wit:

"State of Louisiana, Parish of Caddo.

"This is to certify, that the court has carefully examined the matter of the application by the Anti-Vice Committee of Shreveport, Louisiana, for an injunction prohibiting and restraining certain property owners of the city of Shreveport, from conducting or allowing to be conducted residence property owned by them in a way contrary to the Provisions of Act No. 47 of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, for 1918, and it has satisfied itself that the said ...