State v. McFarland

• Decision Date: 22 December 1905
• Citation: 105 N.W. 187,96 Minn. 482
• Parties: STATE v. McFARLAND et al.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

96 Minn. 482

105 N.W. 187

STATE

v.McFARLAND et al.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Dec. 22, 1905.

Appeal from Municipal Court of Minneapolis; Charles L. Smith, Judge.

Frank McFarland and others were charged with vagrancy, and from a judgment of conviction Bert Stone appeals. Reversed.

Syllabus by the Court

Appeal from the judgment of the municipal court of the city of Minneapolis adjudging the defendant guilty of the offense of vagrancy as defined by an ordinance enacted by virtue of the power granted to the city council to restrain and punish vagrants. Held, that the city council may declare what acts shall constitute vagrancy, but such power must be confined within reasonable bounds and limited to the generally accepted meaning and scope of the law relating to the subject. City of St. Paul v. Briggs, 88 N. W. 984, 85 Minn. 290,89 Am. St. Rep. 554, followed.

That part of the ordinance in question which attempts to punish a person as a vagrant who is found trespassing on private premises without giving a good account to the court for his or her conduct is void, but the other provisions of the ordinance are not dependent on the void part and are valid.

The trial court received the testimony of policemen to the effect that the defendant's reputation was that of a pickpocket. This was error. M. C. Brady, for appellant.

Frank Healy and A. C. Finney, for the State.

START, C. J.

The defendant was convicted in the municipal court of the city of Minneapolis of vagrancy under the ordinance of the city and sentenced to the workhouse for the term of 85 days. He appealed from the judgment.

1. The first alleged error to be considered is that the ordinance in question is void for the reason that it is not authorized by the city charter. The city council has power, by virtue of the city charter (Sp. Laws 1881, p. 434, c. 76, subc. 4, § 5), ‘to restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, street beggars and prostitutes.’ Pursuant to this authority the city council enacted an ordinance entitled ‘An ordinance to punish vagrants and street beggars,’ which was approved July 15, 1891. It provides that ‘any male or female person found within the limits of the city of Minneapolis, who has no visible means of support, or who lives idly without lawful employment, or who wanders about the streets, either by day or night; or any person who does not have a known place of residence or abode, or is found begging, or who for the purpose of gain, travels about over the city begging, or who loiters about saloons, gambling resorts or houses of ill fame, or is found trespassing on private premises, without giving a good account to the court for his or her conduct, shall upon conviction before the municipal court, be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00) or committed not to exceed ninety (90) days in the Minneapolis workhouse.’...