Town of Pacific v. Seifert

• Decision Date: 31 October 1883
• Citation: 79 Mo. 210
• Parties: TOWN OF PACIFIC v. SEIFERT, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

79 Mo. 210

TOWN OF PACIFIC

v.SEIFERT, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1883.

Appeal from Franklin Circuit Court.--HON. A. J. SEAY, Judge.

REVERSED.

John R. Martin for appellant.

Crews & Booth for respondent.

PHILIPS, C.

This is an action instituted by the town of Pacific against the appellant to recover the sum of $90, as a penalty for refusing to take out a merchant's license from said town. It appears from the evidence that Pacific was incorporated as a town in 1859 by an act of the legislature. Laws of 1859, p. 179. It is clear to my mind that no power was conferred upon the municipal authorities of this town to exact a merchant's license by the original charter. This fact seems to have been recognized by the plaintiff, for, in 1874, it procured from the legislature an amendment to its charter, (Laws 1874, p. 353,) conferring on the trustees of said town authority “by ordinance to impose a license tax on merchants” and “to provide for the collection of the same.” Judgment was rendered by the justice for the town, and defendant appealed to the circuit court, where, on a trial de novo, judgment was rendered again in favor of plaintiff, for the sum of $25, from which defendant has appealed to this court.

By section 7 of the charter of this town, as published in the laws of 1859, supra, it is provided that the trustees “may impose fines or imprisonment for breach of any of their ordinances, such fine not to exceed $20, and such imprisonment not to exceed ten days.” Under this statute, as published, it is quite clear there was no power vested by the charter in the trustees to pass an ordinance authorizing the imposition of a greater fine than $20. To meet this palpable objection the plaintiff at the trial offered and read in evidence, against the objection of defendant, a certified copy of this charter, as enrolled by the legislature, as the same appears on file in the office of the Secretary of State, from which it appears that the word “twenty” in the provision above quoted, is “ninety” in the enrolled bill. It is not unimportant to state that this certificate by the later Secretary of State is dated June 10th, 1879, and, for aught that appears in the record, the discrepancy between the act as published and as passed was for the first time called to defendant's attention at the trial in 1879.

1. PRINTED LAWS ANDORIGINAL ROLLS, AS EVIDENCE OF THE CHARTER OF A TOWN: exceptional case.

The first question, therefore, to be decided is, under which of said copies of the charter should the defendant's cause have been determined? The legislature of the State by general law, (Ch. 97, p. 1028, R. S. 1855,) made general and very complete provisions for the publication and circulation of the acts passed at any succeeding legislature. It was made the duty of the Secretary of State to prepare, from the original rolls in his office, for publication, all laws passed. He was to compare the printed copies and see that they were correct. “And when the whole are printed, he shall note all errors which have been committed, and cause a memorandum thereof to be annexed, together with an attestation, under his hand, that he has collated the laws therein contained, with the original rolls in his office, and corrected the same thereby.” The succeeding sections of the said chapter provide, with much particularity, the manner of the distribution of these statutes, the object evidently being, aside from the use of the officials of the State and local governments, to bring the laws of each legislature as near as might be to the people. It is to these statutes the people are accustomed to look for the laws for their government. The laws of 1859, in question, were certified by the then Secretary of State, in accordance with the provisions of the general statute just adverted to. By section 1, chapter 54, Wagner's Statutes, page 590, “the printed statute books of the State, printed under its authority, shall be evidence of the private acts therein contained.”

For twenty years the charter of the municipal corporation in question has stood with the word “twenty” unchallenged in the published statutes of the State. The defendant, with other citizens of that town, had a right to assume that the published statute was correct, and to act accordingly. It is contrary to the whole genius and spirit of our institutions that our penal statutes, or other statutes, affecting the personal property and rights of the citizens, should remain a sealed volume, or for twenty years lie unpublished in the vaults of the Secretary of State, to be brought forth for the first time on the arraignment of a citizen for a violation of some of its provisions, especially in a case like the one at bar.

We make no controversy with the correctness of the rule, that in the case of a contest as to what is the best evidence of a legislative enactment, the original roll as deposited with the Secretary of State is to be preferred; for this is what the authorities and adjudications denominate “the statute roll.” Pacific R. R. Co. v. The Governor, 23 Mo. 353. Nor are we unmindful in the expression of these views of the danger suggested that the mere blunder of the secretary...