Commonwealth v. Jarrett

• Decision Date: 19 March 1926
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Jarrett.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

213 Ky. 618

Commonwealth v. Jarrett.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky. Criminal Common Law and Equity Division.

Decided March 19, 1926.

1. Infants — Selling Newspapers to Boys Under 14 for Resale on Streets of City of Covington Held Violation of Law Prohibiting Employment of Minors in Street Occupations in Cities of First, Second, and Third Class (Ky. Stats., Section 331a-15). — Selling daily newspapers to boys under 14 for resale on streets of city of Covington held a violation of Ky. Stats., section 331a-15, prohibiting employment of minors in street occupations in cities of first, second, and third class.

2. Statutes — Statute Prohibiting Employment of Minors in Street Occupations in Cities of Second and Third Class Held Constitutional as Local or Special Legislation (Ky. Stats., Section 331a-15; Constitution Section 59). — Ky. Stats., section 331a-15, prohibiting employment of minors in street occupations in cities of the first, second, or third class, held not unconstitutional within Constitution, section 59, as local or special legislation.

Appeal from Kenton Circuit Court

FRANK E. DAUGHERTY, Attorney General, and GARDNER K. BYERS, Assistant Attorney General, and ORIE S. WARE, for appellant.

MYERS & HOWARD for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY DRURY, COMMISSIONER

Reversing.

This case was tried upon the following agreed statement of facts:

"It is agreed between the Commonwealth and the defendants that the defendants are and were at the date herein mentioned, the agents of the Cincinnati Times-Star and the Kentucky Post, daily newspapers circulated in Kenton county, and that as such agents on the 9th day of January, 1925, in Kenton county, in the regular course of their duties they sold, for cash, and delivered to Marion Graham and Edward Ruebsch, boys under 14 years of age, a number of copies of the said Times-Star and Kentucky Post, newspapers of the issue of that day, with the knowledge that the boys intended to sell same for their own profit on the streets of the city of Covington, and that the boys actually did sell said papers at a profit to themselves. The said boys at that time attended and attend the public schools of the city of Covington regularly and said papers were sold to them and were sold by the boys after school hours, upon the streets in the city of Covington, a city of the second class in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."

These stipulated facts constitute a violation of section 331a-15, Kentucky Statutes; as this occurred in a city of the second class. Similar sales in a city of the sixth class were held to not violate this statute. Cincinnati Times-Star Co. v. Clay's Admr., 195 Ky. 465, 243 S.W. 16.

This case was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, and the court discharged the defendant because in the judgment of the court, section 331a-15, Kentucky Statutes, in so far as it attempts to make unlawful in cities of the first, second and third classes, the employment of minors in street occupations, and to allow such employment elsewhere in the Commonwealth is made invalid by section 59 of our Constitution. We...