Nat'l Amusement Co. v. Johnson
| Decision Date | 05 March 1935 |
| Docket Number | No. 158.,158. |
| Citation | 270 Mich. 613,259 N.W. 342 |
| Parties | NATIONAL AMUSEMENT CO. et al. v. JOHNSON et al. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Bill by the National Amusement Company and another against C. Sophus Johnson, as Manager and Director of Public Safety of the City of Grand Rapids, and another. From a decree dismissing the bill, plaintiffs appeal.
Reversed, and relief granted.
Appeal from Superior Court of Grand Rapids, in Chancery; Thaddeus B. Taylor, Judge.
Argued before the Entire Bench.
Linsey, Shivel & Phelps and John H. Vander Wal, all of Grand Rapids, for appellants.
Ganson Taggart and Louis H. Grettenberger, both of Grand Rapids, for appellees.
This is a bill to restrain the enforcement of--
‘An ordinance to Preserve the Public Health and Prohibit Certain Dangerous Amusements and Exhibitions in the City of Grand Rapids. * * *
Plaintiffs claim the ordinance is invalid because it is in conflict with Act No. 65, Pub.Acts 1933, which reads:
‘An Act to regulate endurance contests known as walkathons, and similar endurance contests; and to prescribe a penalty for the violation thereof. * * *
The statute requires examination of applicants by physicians and psychiatrists, physical examination of participants at intervals of twelve hours, and certificates that participation in the contests will not be injurious to their health. Defendants claim the power to prohibit the contest under its charter provision: ‘(a) To pass ordinances and regulations of every character to secure the public peace, health, safety, welfare and benefit * * *; to regulate and license trades, occupations, businesses and amusements.’
The particular application of the ordinance in this case is to a Walkathon Derby Contest, in which contestants walk, with certain specified rest periods, until all are eliminated but the winner. The contest sometimes lasts months.
Testimony of the opinions and observations of spectators at the walkathon was taken. On the one hand, it was said that the contest was degrading, the management guilty of chicanery and cheap tricks, the audience boisterous and sometimes shouting cruelties and obscenities, and the contestants exhausted and pitiful, some probably sustaining permanent impairment of physical, moral, and mental health. On the other hand, the contest was depicted as a clean and healthful sport, with a solicitous and humane management, an orderly audience whose only outbursts were in good natured and kindly fun, and contestants built up and benefited physically by regular exercise, meals, and habits. At most, the testimony showed need for regulation of the contest. It did not indicate a danger to public health, nor to the health of the contestants beyond prevention by regulation. It demonstrated that the contest is not per se dangerous, but its evil rests in the way it is conducted.
It is the rule that, in the absence...
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Eanes v. City of Detroit
...state having entered the field, may the city, by ordinance, duplicate or complement statutory regulations? In National Amusement Co. v. Johnson, 270 Mich. 613, 259 N.W. 342, 343, we quoted the following from 43 C.J. p. 218: “Where no conflict exists, both laws stand. * * * As a general rule......
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Mich. Gun Owners, Inc. v. Ann Arbor Pub. Sch.
...any event, we have more recently held that even express exemptions are not enough to create a conflict.30 The dissent also cites Nat'l Amusement Co. v. Johnson for support. In that case, the Legislature had enacted a statute regulating "endurance contests," making it unlawful to hold such c......
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Ritholz v. City of Detroit
...either express or implied conditions that are inconsistent or irreconcilable with the ordinance. The cases of National Amusement Co. v. Johnson, 270 Mich. 613, 259 N.W. 342, and People v. McDaniel, 303 Mich. 90, 5 N.W.2d 667, do not apply. Judge SHARPE in his accompanying opinion states tha......
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People's Appliance & Furniture, Inc. v. City of Flint, 57
...within the city limits, and imposed additional license fee, in conflict with State regulations on the subject]; National Amusement Co. v. Johnson, 270 Mich. 613, 259 N.W. 342 [ordinance attempted to forbid walkathons and similar endurance races within the city, in conflict with the State la......