State v. Reeve

• Decision Date: 08 February 1932
• Citation: 104 Fla. 196,139 So. 817
• Parties: STATE ex rel. GARRISON v. REEVE, Chief of Police.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

139 So. 817

104 Fla. 196

STATE ex rel. GARRISON v. REEVE, Chief of Police.

Florida Supreme Court, Division A.

February 8, 1932

Error to Circuit Court, Dade County; Paul D. Barns, Judge.

Habeas corpus proceeding by the State, on the relation of Louise Garrison, against Guy C. Reeve, Chief of Police of the City of Miami. To review a judgment denying a motion to quash the return to the writ and remanding the relator to custody, the relator brings error.

Judgment affirmed.

COUNSEL Peters & Kemp, of Miami, for plaintiff in error.

J. W Watson, Jr., of Miami, for defendant in error.

OPINION

BUFORD C.J.

The plaintiff in error was petitioner in the court below for a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was issued, and, upon return coming in, the petitioner moved to quash the return upon the ground that no authority was shown by the said return for the restraining of the liberty of the petitioner. The motion to quash was denied, and the petitioner was remanded to the custody of the chief of police. To the judgment writ of error was taken, and the case is here for review.

The petitioner was charged with violation of paragraph 3 of section 2 of Ordinance 917 of the city of Miami, which declares it to be unlawful to operate or conduct a beauty shop in such city, unless it is at all times under the direct supervision and management of a registered beauty culturist. The city charter of the city of Miami authorizes the city of Miami amongst other things as follows:

'Paragraph (y) of Section 3:

'To exercise full police powers and establish and maintain a department of division of police.

'Paragraph (z) of Section 3:

'To do all things whatsoever necessary or expedient for promoting or maintaining the general welfare, comfort, education morals, peace, government, health, trade, commerce or industries of the city or its inhabitants.

'Paragraph (aa) of Section 3:

'To make and enforce all ordinances, rules and regulations necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying into affect the powers conferred by this charter or by any general law, and to provide and impose suitable penalties for the violation of such ordinances, rules and regulations, or any of them, by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment at hard labor on the streets or other works of the city for a term not exceeding sixty days, or both.

'Paragraph (bb) of Section 3:

'To license and tax privileges, business, occupations and professions carried on and engaged in within the city limits and the amount of such licenses and the amount of such taxes shall not be dependent upon a general State revenue law.

'Paragraph (p) of Section 3:

'* * * To regulate or prevent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive business within said City, * * * to regulate or prohibit the * * * exercise or any dangerous or unwholesome business, trade or employment therein: * * * and generally to define, prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the City.

'Paragraph (w) of section 3:

'To provide for the preservation of the general health of the inhabitants of said city, make regulations to secure the same, * * * to prevent the introduction or spread of contagious or infectious diseases, and prevent and suppress diseases generally; * * * to provide for the organization of a department or bureau of health, to have the powers of a board of health, for said city, with the authority necessary for the prompt and efficient performance of its duties, with power to invest any or all the officials or employees of such department of health with such powers as the police officers of the city have. * * *

'Section 49 of the City Charter:

'In providing for the licensing and regulating persons, corporations and associations engaged in business, occupations, professions and trades the commission may by ordinances classify business and arrange the various businesses, occupations, trades and professions carried on in the city into such classes as may be just and proper and fix by ordinance the license fee payable by each, without regard to the State law fixing such fees.

'Section 84 of the City Charter:

'All general laws of the State, applicable to municipal corporations, heretofore or hereafter enacted and which are not in conflict with the provisions of this charter or with ordinances or resolutions hereafter enacted by the commission pursuant to authority conferred by this charter, shall be applicable to the said city, provided, however, that nothing contained in this charter shall be construed as limiting the power of the commission to enact any ordinance or resolution not in conflict with the constitution of the State or with the express provisions of this Charter.

'Section 108 of the City Charter:

'The enumeration of particular powers in this charter shall not be deemed or held to be exclusive, but in addition to the powers enumerated herein, implied thereby, or appropriate to the exercise thereof, the said City shall have and may exercise all other powers which are now, or may hereafter be, possessed or enjoyed by cities under the Constitution and general laws of this State, and all the powers of the City, whether expressed or implied, shall be exercised and embraced in the manner prescribed in this charter, or when not so prescribed then in such manner as may be provided, by ordinance or resolution of the Commission.'

The ordinance under which this prosecution is had contains the following definitions:

'(f) Beauty Culture. Any one or any combination of the following practices (when done upon the upper part of the human body for cosmetic or beautifying purposes and not for the treatment of diseases or physical or mental ailments and when done for payment, either directly, or indirectly, or without payment for the public generally), constitutes the practice of beauty culture:

'1. The application of the hands or of mechanical or electrical apparatus with or without cosmetic preparations, tonics, lotions, creams, antiseptics or clays, to massage, cleanse, stimulate, manipulate, exercise or otherwise to improve or to beautify the scalp, face, neck, shoulders, arms, bust or upper part of any person.

'2. To arrange, dress, curl, wave, cleanse, cut, clip, singe, bleach, dye, tint, color or similarly treat the hair of any person.

'3. The removal of superfluous hair from the body by electrical or other process.

'4. Manicuring.

'(g) Beauty Culturist. Any person who is engaged in the business, profession or occupation of beauty culture, as defined in subdivision (f) hereof.

'(h) Beauty Culture Specialist. Any person who specializes in any one or more of the arts defined in subdivision (f) hereof.

'(i) Beauty Culture Apprentice. A beauty culture apprentice shall mean any person who is engaged in learning and acquiring a knowledge of the practice of beauty culture, as defined in sub-division (f) hereof.

'(j) Beauty Shop. A beauty shop is any building or part thereof wherein beauty culture is practiced.'

The ordinance further provides:

'Section 2. Requirement of Registration.

'(a) That from and after the first day of July, A. D. 1930, it shall be unlawful for any person in the City of Miami. Florida, to engage in, follow or practice, or to attempt to engage in, follow or practice the business, profession or occupation of barbeing or beauty culture, unless such person shall have first obtained a certificate of registration as a registered barber or a registered beauty culturist, or registered beauty culture specialist issued pursuant to the provisions of this ordinance by the Board of Examiners hereinafter established.'

And subsection E of section 2 is as follows:

'(e) That from and after the first day of July A. D. 1930, it shall be unlawful to operate or conduct a beauty shop in the City of Miami, Florida, unless it is at all times under the direct supervision and management of a registered beauty culturist.

'Nothing in this ordinance shall be construed as preventing any person, firm, corporation or association from owning, operating and/or conducting any barber or beauty culture school or barber or beauty shop or establishment in the City of Miami, Florida, provided, the employees thereof actually engaged in the practice of the various occupations and professions classified and defined in this ordinance are duly registered in accordance with the provisions hereinafter provided.'

It is contended by the plaintiff in error that, because section 3 (bb) of the Charter of the city of Miami authorizes the city to levy license taxes on all businesses conducted within the city, and especially authorizes the city by ordinance to regulate or prevent slaughter houses, to prohibit or regulate the keeping of fowls or animals, to regulate the transportation of articles through the streets, to regulate the location of stables, to regulate the size, material, and construction of buildings, fences, etc., to regulate hospitals, and to license and regulate air vessels operated over the city, to license, control, tax, and regulate traffic and sales upon the streets; to regulate, suppress, and prohibit hawkers, peddlers, and beggars on the streets, and to license, tax, regulate, or prohibit in designated streets carriages, omnibusses, cars, wagons, drays, etc., to cause to be registered and controlled the drivers of motor vehicles and to cause to be registered and controlled the pilots of air vessels operated over the city, and does not especially authorize the city by ordinance to regulate the practice of the profession of beauty culture, the right of the city to pass an ordinance regulating and controlling the practice of beauty culture is by...