State ex rel. Satcho v. Judge Criminal District Court

• Decision Date: 04 January 1897
• Docket Number: 12,349
• Citation: 49 La.Ann. 231,21 So. 690
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE EX REL. VINCENT SATCHO v. JUDGE CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT, PARISH OF ORLEANS, SECTION A, AND DISTRICT ATTORNEY, PARISH OF ORLEANS

21 So. 690

49 La.Ann. 231

STATE EX REL. VINCENT SATCHO v. JUDGE CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT, PARISH OF ORLEANS, SECTION A, AND DISTRICT ATTORNEY, PARISH OF ORLEANS

No. 12,349

Supreme Court of Louisiana

January 4, 1897

Submitted December 19, 1896

ON APPLICATION for Writs of Certiorari and Prohibition.

On the 17th of August, 1896, the District Attorney for the parish of Orleans filed in the Criminal District Court for the parish of Orleans, an information against the defendant. On the 4th of December defendant filed a motion to quash the information. He complains that the judge illegally overruled said objections. That by Art. 8 of the Constitution of Louisiana, parties accused are entitled "in all criminal prosecutions" to "enjoy the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation" against him which means by a long line of precedents resting on principle, that in a prosecution for the commission of a statutory offence the words of the statute or others of fully equivalent import should be employed (State vs Jackson, 43 An. 184). That said criminal prosecution against him is fatally irregular and said information absolutely void, because (1) it does not describe any criminal offence known in the words of any penal statute, or in "others of fully equivalent import," and because (3) it does not allege that relator was at the time mentioned in said information the proprietor of a place of public business which required a license under a law of the State of Louisiana or under a parochial or municipal law or ordinance." That the Criminal District Court is absolutely without jurisdiction to try said cause by reason of there being no legal information pending against him in said court. That if the judge of said court be not prohibited from proceeding further in the cause, he will force the defendant to trial and impose a sentence upon him (if convicted) in a case wherein there is no appeal and will forever deprive him of his constitutional right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him before trial, and will thereby cause him irreparable injury. He invokes the exercise of the supervisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court conferred on it by Art. 90 of the Constitution, he prays for writs of certiotari and prohibition and due legal relief.

W. L Evans, for Relator.

M. J. Cunningham, Attorney General, and Robert H. Marr, District Attorney, for Respondents.

OPINION

NICHOLLS, C.J.

The motion to quash was based on grounds substantially the same as those mentioned in relator's petition though somewhat amplified.

It asserts that "the information does not set forth in allegations, facts essential in a prima facie case of guilt under Act No. 18 of 1886;" that it does not allege "that relator failed to close such licensed place of business at 12 o'clock on Saturday night; that it does not allege that relator failed and refused to keep such licensed place of public business closed continuously for twenty-four hours thereafter, nor does it allege that relator did unlawfully give, trade, barter, exchange or sell any of the stock or any article of merchandise kept in any licensed establishment on Sunday." The information charges that relator, "on the 14th day of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, in the parish of Orleans, and within the jurisdiction of the Criminal District Court for the parish of Orleans, being the proprietor of a certain establishment and place of business commonly called a barroom, which, by law, is required to be closed at 12 o'clock on Saturday nights, and to remain closed continuously for twenty-four hours, did on Sunday, the 14th day of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, unlawfully open his said establishment and public place of business aforesaid, and, being the proprietor thereof, did then and there unlawfully give, trade, barter, exchange and sell certain portions of the stock and certain articles of merchandise kept in such establishment and place of business, contrary to the form of the statute of the State of Louisiana in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the same."

By the first section of Act 18 of 1886 it is enacted "that from and after the 31st day of December, A. D. 1886, all stores, shops, saloons and all places of public business which are or may be licensed under the law of the State of Louisiana, or under any parochial or municipal law or ordinance, and all plantation stores, are hereby required to be closed at 12 o'clock on Saturday nights, and to remain closed continuously for twenty-four hours, during which period of time it shall not be lawful for the proprietors thereof to give, trade, barter, exchange or sell any of the stock or any article of merchandise kept in such establishment."

...