City of St. Louis v. Knox
| Decision Date | 26 November 1878 |
| Citation | 6 Mo.App. 247 |
| Parties | CITY OF ST. LOUIS, Respondent, v. THOMAS KNOX, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
An ordinance of the city of St. Louis which provides that no horse or cattle dealer shall engage in business as such without having first paid a city license, which shall in no case be granted without a certificate from the Board of Police Commissioners that the applicant is of good moral character, is a police regulation, and its violation may be punished by fine and imprisonment under the City Charter. Its reasonableness is not a question for the courts.
APPEAL from St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction.
Affirmed.
A. M. SULLIVAN and R. S. MacDONALD, for appellant.
LEVERETT BELL and SAMUEL ERSKINE, for respondent.
On September 7, 1877, an ordinance of the city of St. Louis was passed, entitled “An ordinance in relation to stock-yard proprietors, sale-stables, and horse and cattle dealers, defining each, and fixing amount of license for same,” etc.
This ordinance, amongst other things, defines a sale-stable to be “a place where horses or mules are stabled, to be bought, sold, bartered, or traded, as a business; ” and a horse and cattle dealer to be “a person who buys or sells, barters or trades, in horses, mules, cattle, hogs, or sheep, on his own account, without being the keeper of a stock-yard or a sale-stable;” and provides that the proprietors or keepers of each sale-stable in the city shall pay to the collector, in advance, an annual license therefor of $100; and that each person, or copartnership of persons, engaged in the business of horse and cattle dealer shall pay to the collector, in advance, an annual license therefor of $50; and that no sale-stable keeper or horse and cattle dealer shall engage in business as such in the city without first having a license, which shall in no case be granted without a certificate from the Board of Police Commissioners that the applicant is of good moral character. Any violation of these provisions is made punishable by a fine of double the amount of the required license.
Appellant was convicted for a violation of this ordinance, of a misdemeanor by carrying on a trade in mules and horses in St. Louis without a license, and was sentenced to pay a fine of $200, and, in default of payment, to be imprisoned. From this conviction he appealed.
It is contended that the ordinance is unreasonable and oppressive, and that it is in violation of ...
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State ex rel. Hickman v. Preferred Tontine Mercantile Company
...laws having such objects in view have been held to be within the police power of a State. A few will serve to point the rule. In St. Louis v. Knox, 6 Mo.App. 247, s. c., 74 Mo. 79, ordinance of the city requiring persons who desire to engage in the business of horse-trading to procure a lic......
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City of St. Louis v. Weitzel
...as to how the application for a license shall be made is a mere matter of detail, and a similar provision has been held valid in St. Louis v. Knox, 6 Mo.App. 247, affirmed, 74 Mo. 79, where a similar ordinance was valid, requiring an application for a license to sell horses, etc., to be mad......
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City v. Thompson
...“the police power of regulation” but “the taxing power.” St. Louis v. Green, 7 Mo. App. 468; St. Louis v. Green, 70 Mo. 562; St. Louis v. Knox, 6 Mo. App. 247. The law universal applies the power in every municipality to pass all proper ordinances which are necessary to carry out and enforc......
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Knox City v. Thompson
...power of regulation" but " " " " the taxing power." St. Louis v. Green, 7 Mo.App. 468; St. Louis v. Green, 70 Mo. 562; St. Louis v. Knox, 6 Mo.App. 247. The law universal applies the power in every municipality to pass all proper ordinances which are necessary to carry out and enforce other......