Davis v. Town of Anita

• Decision Date: 06 December 1887
• Citation: 35 N.W. 244,73 Iowa 325
• Parties: DAVIS AND OTHERS v. TOWN OF ANITA AND OTHERS.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

73 Iowa 325

35 N.W. 244

DAVIS AND OTHERS

v.TOWN OF ANITA AND OTHERS.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

December 6, 1887.

Appeal from district court, Cass county; C. F. LOOFBOUROW, Judge.

Action to enjoin the defendants from enforcing an ordinance of the incorporated town of Anita. A temporary injunction was granted, and the defendants appeal.James Bruce and Willard & Fletcher, for appellants.

John W. Scott, for appellee.

SEEVERS, J.

The incorporated town of Anita enacted an ordinance declaring certain scales in said town to be “city scales,” and providing for the appointment of a suitable person as weigh-master, whose term of office and compensation should be such as might be provided by a resolution of the town council; and further providing that it should be “unlawful for any person * * * to sell within the town of Anita any grain, hay, coal, cattle, hogs, sheep, or other commodity sold by weight when the quantity of the article exceeds one thousand pounds, without procuring a draft of such article or commodity to be made upon the city scales. * * *” And “any person found guilty of the violation of this ordinance shall, for the first offense, be fined in any sum not less than one dollar, and not more than ten dollars.” The court granted an injunction restraining the defendants from enforcing this ordinance.

1. It is contended by the appellees that the town did not have the power to pass the ordinance. It is provided by statute that cities and towns have the power “to establish and regulate markets; to provide for the measuring or weighing of hay, coal, or any other article for sale.” Code, § 456. This statute expressly confers on cities and towns the power to provide for the measuring or weighing of hay, coal, or any other article. The manner in which the power conferred shall be exercised is left to the discretion of the corporation; subject, however, to the general rule that the ordinance must be reasonable. The power given, in substance, is to regulate, and this implies that the corporation is impowered to do all things essential to the proper exercise of the power expressly conferred. The privilege conferred should not be confined within narrow bounds, but the discretion reposed in the corporation must be fairly exercised, so as to not unduly infringe upon the rights of the citizen, on the one hand, and yet, on the other, so that the express and necessarily implied object of the statute shall not be unduly limited. The subject under consideration, or, rather, the power to establish markets, was considered by this court in City of Davenport v. Kelly, 7 Iowa, 102. See, also, the cases referred to in the cited case, and Yates v. City of Milwaukee, 12 Wis. 753; Taylor...