State v. Hannibal & St. J. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 07 June 1886
• Citation: 89 Mo. 571,1 S.W. 133
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. KEMP, Pros. Atty., etc., v. HANNIBAL & ST. J. R. CO.

1 S.W. 133

89 Mo. 571

STATE ex rel. KEMP, Pros. Atty., etc., v. HANNIBAL & ST. J. R. CO.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 7, 1886.

1. FINES — ALLOWING PART TO GO TO INFORMER.

It is competent for the legislature, by way of an inducement to secure prompt enforcement of the penal laws, to allow a part of each penalty recovered to go to the informer.

2. SAME — VALIDITY OF STATUTE.

Such a statute does not violate that provision of the constitution which requires the "clear proceeds" of fines and penalties to be paid into the school fund. Const. Mo. art. 11, § 8; following State v. Wabash, St. L. & P. Ry. Co., ante, 130.

Appeal from Livingston circuit court.

Action to recover statutory penalty by reason of defendant's neglect to "ring" or "whistle" at a highway crossing. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

T. H. Kemp, for the State. G. W. Easley and Strong & Mosman, for appellant, Hannibal & St. J. R. Co.

RAY, J.

This action was instituted and conducted by the prosecuting attorney of Livingston county, Missouri, in the name of the state of Missouri, at the relation of Thomas H. Kemp, as such prosecuting attorney, upon the information of John Hudgins, informer, to recover the penalty prescribed by section 806, Revision 1879, for a failure on the part of the defendant to ring a bell or sound a whistle at a certain public crossing on the railroad of defendant, in Livingston county, Missouri. The proceeding was commenced in said county, before a justice of the peace, where plaintiff had judgment, from which defendant appealed to the circuit court, where plaintiff again had judgment, from which the defendant appealed to this court. The "information" or complaint filed before the justice as the basis of the action or prosecution was duly signed by said prosecuting attorney of said county, and is as follows, to-wit:

"The State of Missouri, at the Relation of Thomas H. Kemp, Prosecuting Attorney for Livingston County, in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in said State, upon the Information of John Hudgins, Informer, Respondent, v. The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad Company, Appellant.

"The plaintiff, for cause of action, states that defendant is a corporation, duly incorporated under the laws of the state of Missouri, and owning and operating a railroad track from Hannibal, on the Mississippi river, to St. Joseph, on the Missouri river, all in said state, on which said defendant, by its agents and servants, officers and employes, operates its engines and cars; and plaintiff further states that heretofore, and within ten days before the institution of this suit, to-wit, on the twenty-fourth day of September, 1882, while the agents, servants, officers, and employes of defendant were operating their engine, number unknown, on the passenger train west, at about 5 o'clock A. M., and cars attached thereto, over the said railroad track and roadbed of the defendant, running and passing through Livingston county, in the state of Missouri, where the said railroad crosses a traveled public road, in Mooresville township, in the county and state aforesaid, the said traveled public road leading from the south-west corner of sec. 17, tp. 57, R. 25, a point north of said railroad track, to the south-west corner of same section, a point south of said railroad track, and not being in a city, the said agents, servants, officers, and employes of the defendant neglected and failed to ring, and keep ringing, a bell, and also neglected to sound a steam-whistle, of said engine, and failed to ring said bell, or to sound said steam-whistle, belonging to said engine, at any time before crossing said traveled public road, where said railroad crosses the same, within eighty rods of said traveled public road where said railroad crosses the same; and plaintiff states that then and thereby said defendant incurred the liability to pay the sum of twenty dollars penalty, and plaintiff sues for said penalty, as provided by section 806 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri; and asks judgment for the said sum of twenty dollars,

                with costs of suit.

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