Riggins v. District Court of Salt Lake County and Four Other Cases

• Decision Date: 19 November 1935
• Docket Number: 5726,5730,5732,5728,5725
• Citation: 89 Utah 183,51 P.2d 645
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: RIGGINS et al. v. DISTRICT COURT OF SALT LAKE COUNTY et al. and four other cases

51 P.2d 645

89 Utah 183

RIGGINS et al. v. DISTRICT COURT OF SALT LAKE COUNTY et al. and four other cases

Nos. 5725, 5726, 5728, 5730, 5732

Supreme Court of Utah

November 19, 1935

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Rehearing denied October 14, 1936.

Original proceedings for writs of certiorari and prohibition by Earl Riggins and others against the District Court of Salt Lake County, Hon. James W. McKinney, one of the judges thereof, and others; by Steve Bolotos and others against the District Court of Carbon County, Hon. George Christensen, one of the judges thereof, and others; by J. A. Jones and others against the District Court of Weber County, Hon. L. A. Wade, one of the judges thereof, and others; by Izzy McGillis, doing business as Mi-Den, against the District Court of Salt Lake County, Hon. James W. McKinney, one of the judges thereof and others; and by Lewis Evans and others against the District Court of Carbon County, Hon. George Christensen, one of the judges thereof, and others.

Order in accordance with opinion.

Alternative writs of prohibition vacated and recalled and the various petitions for permanent writs of prohibition denied.

Shirley P. Jones, H. A. Rich, and E. A. Rogers, all of Salt Lake City, and Knox Patterson, of Price, for plaintiffs Riggins, Bolotos, and others.

Arthur Woolley, of Ogden, for plaintiffs Jones and others.

Karl v. King, of Salt Lake City, for plaintiff McGillis.

J. H. Braffet, of Price, for plaintiffs Evans and others.

E. M. Bagley, H. D. Moyle, and Frank L. Copening, Jr., all of Salt Lake City, for defendants.

ELIAS HANSEN, Chief Justice. FOLLAND, EPHRAIM HANSON, and MOFFAT, JJ., and McDONOUGH, District Judge, concur. WOLFE, J., being disqualified, did not participate.

OPINION

ELIAS HANSEN, Chief Justice.

Five petitions have heretofore been filed in this court whereby plaintiffs seek to prohibit the defendants from further proceeding against plaintiffs in cases pending in the defendants district courts. In each of the cases so pending in the district courts, the defendant liquor control commission is, in its own name, seeking writs of injunction permanently restraining plaintiffs herein from selling, keeping, and giving away alcoholic beverages on premises occupied by plaintiffs. Upon the filing of each of the petitions in this court, an alternative writ of prohibition, and a writ of certiorari in aid thereof, were issued as prayed for. Pursuant to such writs, the defendants appeared, filed certified records of the various proceedings had in the cases here brought in question, filed motions to quash the writs, motions to strike certain allegations of the petitions, and demurred generally to the petitions. All five proceedings were, at the time of the oral argument by consent of counsel, consolidated. They will all be disposed of in this opinion.

The allegations of the various petitioners are substantially the same. The relief prayed by the petitioners is identical. It is in substance alleged in each of the petitions: That plaintiffs are, and at the times complained of were, engaged in such businesses as conducting restaurants, soft drink parlors, cigar and tobacco stores; that they and each of them now have, and at the time complained of had, licenses to sell draught beer containing less than 3.2 per cent of alcohol by weight, which licenses were lawfully issued in full compliance with, and by authority of chapter 10, Laws of Utah 1933, Second Special Session; that such licenses, and each of them, were and are unrevoked and constitute valid and existing authority to sell beer as authorized in such act; that under and by virtue of claimed authority conferred upon the liquor control commission of Utah by the Liquor Control Act (Laws Utah 1935, chapter 43), such liquor control commission by and through its chairman and administrator, Hugh B. Brown, caused complaints to be filed in the defendants district courts against each of the plaintiffs herein charging each of them with having unlawfully sold, kept, stored, and given away alcoholic beverages at their respective places of business; that upon filing such complaints hearings were had thereon without any notice whatsoever to the plaintiffs; that upon such pretended hearings writs of injunction were issued against plaintiffs, and each of them, and against their respective places of business enjoining each of plaintiffs from, at their respective places of business, selling, keeping, giving away, or using alcoholic beverages, and from moving or in any way interfering with the alcoholic beverages, packages, fixtures, or other things used in connection with the selling, keeping, storing, giving away, or using of alcoholic beverages on the premises where plaintiffs conducted their businesses until the conclusion of the trial; that notices of the injunctions were posted in plaintiffs' places of business, thus advertising to plaintiffs' customers and patrons that plaintiffs were such violators of law that it was necessary to issue injunctions against them with the result that plaintiffs' patronage has dwindled to almost nothing and their investments and businesses jeopardized to the extent that they are threatened with complete destruction unless relief can be secured from this court; that no bonds or other security has been posted by defendants, or any of them, to secure plaintiffs against such damage and injury as may be sustained by reason of the issuance of such injunctions; that the liquor control commission has, without notice or hearing, revoked the permit of one of petitioners to purchase liquor; that the liquor control commission claims the right to retain control of the money derived from the sale of liquor and pay themselves from such funds and use the remainder for carrying on the business of buying and selling liquors, employing agents, servants, and attorneys; that the defendants and each of them have threatened each of the plaintiffs, their employees, servants, agents, patrons, and customers with prosecutions for contempt of court if they, or either of them, use or consume any alcoholic beverages upon plaintiffs' premises; that the Liquor Control Act violates article 1, § 8; article 4, §§ 2 and 4, and the Fifth, Sixth, Fourteenth, and Twenty-First Amendments of the Constitution of the United States; that the act likewise violates article 1, §§ 1, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 27; article 6, § 26, and subdivisions 6 and 16 thereof; article 7, §§ 17, 18, and 21; article 8, §§ 1, 10, 18, and 21; article 13, §§ 2 and 9; article 14, § 1; article 21, §§ 1 and 2, of the Constitution of Utah; that plaintiffs have no plain, speedy, or adequate remedy at law. There are numerous other allegations in the petitions which bear but remotely, if at all, upon the questions presented for determination. What has been said as to the nature of the allegations of the petitions is sufficient to indicate what is relied upon by the plaintiffs for the relief prayed.

The parties are agreed that the constitutionality of the act may properly be disposed of in this proceeding. The authorities so hold. 22 R. C. L. 13. Defendants, however, contend that our review of the act should be confined to the constitutionality of such portions thereof as are directly involved in the injunctions issued by the district courts. As will be noted, plaintiffs contend that the act violates various provisions of both our State and Federal Constitutions. It is urged that the act fails to comply with article 6, § 23, of our State Constitution which provides that:

"Except general appropriation bills, and bills for the codification and general revision of laws, no bill shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title."

The title of the Liquor Control Act is as follows:

"An Act to Provide a System of State Control of the Manufacture, Purchase, Sale, Importation, Exportation, Transportation, and Use of Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages; to Create a Liquor Control Commission, and to Provide for the Sale of Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages by Such Commission, to Make an Appropriation Therefor; to Provide Penalties for the Violation of the Provisions of this Act; and Repealing Title 46 of the Revised Statutes of Utah, 1933, Chapter 35 of the Laws of Utah, 1933 and Chapter 10 of the Laws of Utah 1933, Second Special Session."

Plaintiffs urge that sections 16 and 17 of the act are not clearly expressed in the title thereof, and therefore, the whole act is unconstitutional. Such sections authorize the liquor control commission, hereafter referred to as the commission, to borrow from the state land board and the State Industrial Commission, and also authorize the state land board and the State Industrial Commission to loan to the commission money "for necessary purposes in the administration of the act." It is contended on behalf of plaintiffs that the authority conferred in the body of the act upon the commission to borrow and upon the state land board and Industrial Commission to lend money does not fall within the purview of the provision in the title "to make an appropriation," or within any other provision expressed in the title. Cases are cited which lend support to such contention. However, a failure of a legislative enactment to comply with the constitutional provision requiring that the subject-matter of an act be clearly expressed in its title does not render the act unconstitutional as to subject-matters which are clearly expressed in the title of the act. The rule is thus stated in 1 Cooley's Constitutional Limitations (8th Ed.) p. 308:

"But if the act is broader than the title, it may happen that one part of it can stand because indicated by the title, while as to...