State ex rel. Crow v. Page

• Decision Date: 10 May 1904
• Citation: 80 S.W. 912,107 Mo.App. 213
• Parties: STATE ex rel. CROW, etc., Relator, v. PAGE et al., etc., Respondents
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

80 S.W. 912

107 Mo.App. 213

STATE ex rel. CROW, etc., Relator, v. PAGE et al., etc., Respondents

Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. Louis

May 10, 1904

Certiorari from Washington County Court.

LICENSE REVOKED.

Edward C. Crow and Dunning & Eversole for relator.

Under the application and petition the court did not have jurisdiction to grant the license for the following reasons First. The record fails to show that the applicant was "a law abiding, assessed, taxpaying, male citizen, above the age of twenty-one years." State v. Scott, 96 Mo.App. 620; State ex rel. v. County Court, 66 Mo.App. 96; State v. Higgins, 84 Mo.App. 536. Second. The record fails to show that the petition was signed by a majority of the taxpaying citizens and guardians of minors owning property in the city of Potosi. State ex rel. v. Heege, 37 Mo.App. 338; State v Cauthorn, 40 Mo.App. 94; State v. Reider, 45 Mo.App. 387; State v. Mayor, 57 Mo.App. 192; Laws 1901, p. 142.

BLAND, P. J. Reyburn and Goode, JJ., concur.

OPINION

BLAND, P. J.

On October 23, 1903, William J. Carrigan filed in the clerk's office of the county court of Washington county, Missouri, the following petition:

"State of Missouri, county of Washington, ss.

"In the county court. November term, 1903.

"To the honorable the county court of said county:

"Your applicant, being desirous of keeping a dramshop at Potosi in said county, respectfully applies for a license to keep a dramshop at said place for the period of six months, in accordance with the statute in such case made and provided.

"WILLIAM J. CARRIGAN,

"Applicant."

"PETITION FOR LICENSE FOR DRAMSHOP KEEPER.

"State of Missouri, county of Washington, ss.

"In the county court. November term. A. D., 1903.

"To the honorable county court of said county:

"The undersigned, your petitioners, assessed taxpaying citizens and guardians of minors owning property in the city of Potosi, in said county, respectfully petition and ask your honorable body to grant a license to William J. Carrigan to keep a dramshop at his stand on part of lot 19, Old Village Mine a Breton, now Potosi, for a period of six months, in accordance with the statutes, in such cases made and provided.

"Signed.

"Petitioners' Names. Petitioners' Names."

On November 5, at the November term, 1903, the county court on said petition made the following order:

"State of Missouri, county of Washington, ss.

"November Term, 1903.

"In the county court of said county, on the fifth day of November, 1903, the following, among other proceedings, were had, viz:

"Now at this day comes Wm. Carrigan and presents to the court here an application in writing and a petition to keep a dramshop at his stand on part of lot 19, Old Village of Mine a Breton, now Potosi, Washington county, Missouri, which being examined by the court is found to contain a majority of the assessed taxpaying citizens of said town of Potosi. It is therefore ordered by the court said petition be accepted and approved and that a license be granted to the said Wm. Carrigan to keep a dramshop aforesaid."

A license was issued to Carrigan on the above order to keep a dramshop for a period of six months.

On April 21, 1904, the relator, Edward C. Crow attorney-general, filed in this court a petition asking that a writ of certiorari directed to the respondents, justices of the county court, commanding said court to send before this court the records and proceedings in respect to the order granting a license to Carrigan to keep a dramshop and prayed that the license issued to Carrigan be declared null and void. To the writ issued upon the petition, the respondents, as justices of the county court of Washington county, have returned to us a transcript of all the records and proceedings pertaining to the application of said Carrigan for a dramshop license. This court takes judicial notice that Potosi is a city with less than two thousand inhabitants. In cities of less than two thousand inhabitants it is declared by section 2997, Revised Statutes 1899, as amended in 1901 (Laws of 1901, p. 142), that it shall not be lawful for any county court to issue a license to keep a dramshop in any such town until a majority, both of the assessed taxpaying citizens and guardians of minors owning property therein in the block or square in which the dramshop is to be kept, shall sign a petition asking for such license to keep a dramshop therein. Section 2993, Revised Statutes 1899, provides that one to be qualified to keep a dramshop must be a "law-abiding, assessed, taxpaying male citizen, above twenty-one years of age." The power conferred on the county court to grant dramshop licenses is purely statutory and can be exercised only when all the...