Town of Ponchatoula v. Bates

• Decision Date: 30 November 1931
• Docket Number: 31450
• Citation: Town of Ponchatoula v. Bates, 173 La. 824, 138 So. 851 (La. 1931)
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: TOWN OF PONCHATOULA v. BATES et al

138 So. 851

173 La. 824

TOWN OF PONCHATOULA v. BATES et al

No. 31450

Supreme Court of Louisiana

November 30, 1931

Rehearing Denied January 4, 1932

Appeal from Mayor's Court, Town of Ponchatoula; W. R. Haight Mayor.

Milton Bates and another were convicted of disturbing the peace, and they appeal.

Affirmed.

Reid &amp Reid, of Hammond, for appellants.

Warren W. Comish, of Ponchatoula, for appellee.

OPINION

ODOM, J.

These defendants were prosecuted in the mayor's court of Ponchatoula under an affidavit charging that they "did wilfully, maliciously and unlawfully disturb the peace in violation of Town Ordinance No. 13, Sec. 1 thereof, against the peace and dignity of the Town of Ponchatoula."

Section 1 of the ordinance under which they were prosecuted reads as follows:

"Be it ordained by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the Town of Ponchatoula, that from and after the passage of this ordinance, it shall be unlawful for any person within the corporate limits of the Town of Ponchatoula to engage in a fight or in any manner disturb the Peace."

Before arraignment, defendants moved to quash the affidavits on various grounds, but abandoned all of them except the following:

"1. That the ordinance does not define, nor attempt to define, what act shall constitute a disturbance of the peace and that it is incompetent for an ordinance or a law to denounce a crime or misdemeanor without defining what act shall constitute such crime of misdemeanor."

"2. That the alleged offense with which the defendants are charged does not constitute any crime under the ordinances of Ponchatoula nor the laws of Louisiana."

"3. That for the foregoing reasons and for other reasons urged in the motion to quash, the ordinance is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void."

The motion to quash the affidavits was overruled, and defendants reserved bills. They were tried, convicted, and sentenced. Hence this appeal.

The ordinance under which defendants were prosecuted merely provides that it shall be unlawful for any person to fight or otherwise disturb the peace within the limits of Ponchatoula. These defendants were prosecuted for disturbing the peace. The first objection raised is that the ordinance does not define the offense of disturbing the peace; that is, does not set out what acts shall constitute a disturbance of the peace.

It was not necessary that the ordinance define the offense, for the reason that no better definition for the offense could be found than that contained in the ordinance itself. To disturb means to agitate, to arouse from a state of repose, to molest, to interrupt, to hinder, to disquiet. If the framers of the ordinance had attempted to define the word "disturb," they could have done no better than to say that the word means to agitate, arouse, perplex, or disquiet. But why attempt a definition when each of those words has practically the same meaning as the word "disturb?"

In the case of State v. Lemon Mack (La. Sup.) 173 La. 571, 138 So. 106, ^[1] decided November 3, 1931, the defendant was prosecuted for the crime of stealing money from the person of another, as denounced by Act 40 of 1914. The contention there made was that neither that statute nor any other law defined the offense of stealing from the person. As to that plea, the court said: "The term 'theft from the person,' or 'stealing from the person,' needs no better definition than the words convey. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to define the term in words of plainer meaning."

It is further contended that the ordinance should have specified the particular acts necessary to be done in order to constitute a disturbance of the peace. It would be difficult indeed to specify in an ordinance all the different acts by which the peace and quiet of the inhabitants of a town might be disturbed. A disturbance of the peace may be created by any act or conduct of a person which molests the inhabitants in the enjoyment of that peace and quiet to which they are entitled, or which throws into confusion things settled, or which causes excitement, unrest, disquietude, or fear among persons of ordinary, normal temperament. Such acts to come within the purview of the ordinance must be voluntary, unnecessary, and outside or beyond the ordinary course of human conduct.

It is contended by counsel for defendant that a penal statute which does not define the crime or offense denounced is unconstitutional, unless such crime or offense has a well-recognized common-law definition, such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, or larceny, and they point out that a disturbance of the peaceis not a common-law offense.

This court has held, however, over and over again, that a penal statute is not necessarily unconstitutional because it fails to define the crime denounced.

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