Starnes v. City of Atlanta

• Decision Date: 27 February 1913
• Parties: STARNES v. CITY OF ATLANTA et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

77 S.E. 381

139 Ga. 531

STARNES v. CITY OF ATLANTA et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia

February 27, 1913

Syllabus by the Court.

As a general rule, equity has no jurisdiction to enjoin prosecutions for criminal offenses; and prosecutions for violations of municipal ordinances, which are punishable by fine or imprisonment, are quasi criminal in their nature, and come within the above rule. Cases where equity will enjoin the enforcement of such ordinances are exceptional in character. Georgia Ry. & El. Co. v. Oakland City, 129 Ga. 576, 59 S.E. 296; White v. Tifton, 129 Ga 582, 59 S.E. 299; Rowland v. Commissioners, 133 Ga 190, 65 S.E. 404; Mayor, etc., of Jonesboro v. Central Ry. Co., 134 Ga. 190, 67 S.E. 716; Mayor, etc., of Shellman v. Saxon, 134 Ga. 29, 32, 67 S.E. 438.

An equitable petition showed, in substance, the following: The plaintiff, a physician, had leased certain property within the city of Atlanta, and had opened and was maintaining a sanitarium for the treatment of persons afflicted with nervous troubles and the liquor and drug habit, and was treating patients therein. An ordinance of the city provided that "it shall be unlawful for any person or persons in this city to erect or maintain any hospital, infirmary, house or place of refuge, or reformatory, or asylum, or other place where persons are received for reformation or treatment without first having obtained the consent of the mayor and general council of said city for the erection and maintenance of the same; and all applications to the mayor and general council for permission to erect, maintain or carry on any place for any such purpose must plainly and distinctly show the particular locality where the same is desired, and for what purpose the same is desired to be erected or maintained and what class of persons are to be admitted to the same. Any person or persons who shall violate the provisions of this ordinance shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars and imprisoned not exceeding thirty days, either or both, in the discretion of the recorder's court, for each and every such offense committed." The plaintiff had not obtained consent of the mayor and city council for the maintenance of the sanitarium, although he had made application therefor, and it had been refused. A case was made against the plaintiff by the license inspector of the city, in the recorder's court, for the violation of the...