Village of Wykoff v. Healey

• Decision Date: 14 April 1894
• Docket Number: 8775
• Citation: 58 N.W. 685,57 Minn. 14
• Parties: Village of Wykoff v. James Healey, Jr
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

58 N.W. 685

57 Minn. 14

Village of Wykoff v. James Healey, Jr

No. 8775

Supreme Court of Minnesota

April 14, 1894

Submitted on briefs April 3, 1894.

James Healy, Jr. was convicted before the Village Justice of the Village of Wykoff, of being intoxicated on a public street of that village, contrary to an ordinance. He appealed on questions of law alone to the District Court of Fillmore County, John Whytock, J., where the conviction was affirmed. Upon Healy's request the Judge reported the case so far as was necessary to present the question involved and certified the report to this court under 1878, G. S. ch. 117 § 11. He claimed the ordinance under which he was convicted to be void because the penalty provided is in excess of the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace. The ordinance is as follows:

"Ordinance No. 3.

"The village council of the village of Wykoff do ordain:

"Section 1. Hereafter whoever shall be found drunk or in a state of intoxication on any street or sidewalk, or in any lane alley, road, market or other public place within the corporate limits of the village of Wykoff, or any person or persons who shall be guilty of any riotous or obscene or disorderly conduct, or shall engage in any street brawl on any street or sidewalk, or in any lane, alley, road, market or other public place within the said corporate limits, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof before the Village Justice shall pay a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty-five dollars and costs, and in default of payment of said fine and costs, he shall be committed to the jail of Fillmore county until such fine and costs are paid, and not exceeding ninety days.

"Sec 2. Any person or persons who shall be convicted of any of the offenses enumerated in the foregoing section may in the discretion of the Village Justice be required to give good and sufficient bail with two or more sureties to be approved by said Justice, in the penal sum of not less than one nor more than five hundred dollars, conditioned that the person so convicted shall keep the peace and be of good behavior for the term of six months from the date of conviction, and in default of said bail he may be committed to the Fillmore county jail until such bail is given, not exceeding ninety days."

Judgment affirmed.

Burdett Thayer, for the accused.

The ordinance provides a penalty of both fine and imprisonment and thereby makes a case beyond the jurisdiction of a justice's court.

The penalty imposed by this ordinance is a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars and costs, and in default of payment thereof commitment to jail not exceeding ninety days. The person convicted may in the discretion of the justice be also required to give a bond in the sum of $ 500 with two sureties, and in default thereof he may be committed to jail for ninety days.

Violations of municipal ordinances punishable by fine or imprisonment are criminal offenses within the meaning of Article 1, Sec 7, of the Constitution. Consequently where the punishment may exceed three months imprisonment or $ 100 fine, (the limits of the jurisdiction of justices of the peace) a person can be tried only on the indictment or information of the grand jury. State ex rel. v. West, 42 Minn. 147; State v. Yates, 36 Neb. 287.

In the case at bar the penalty which the justice is authorized to impose upon conviction, is not a mere incident to the judgment or conviction, as in the case of State v. Larson, 40 Minn. 63, nor is it the revocation of some special privilege granted to the defendant and not enjoyed by all citizens as in State v. Harris, 50 Minn. 128.

Had the penalty prescribed in...