DeBerry v. City of LaGrange
DeBerry v. City of LaGrange
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error was convicted, in the recorder’s court of the City of LaGrange, on a charge of violating the following ordinance of the city: “The practice of going in and upon private residences in the City of LaGrange, Georgia, by solicitors, peddlers, hawkers, itinerant merchants, and transient vendors of merchandise, not having been requested or invited so to do by the owner or owners, occupant or occupants of said private residences, for the purpose of soliciting orders for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, and/or for the purpose of disposing of, and/or peddling or hawking the same, is hereby declared to be a nuisance, and punishable as such.” The plaintiff in error, by demurrer to the charge, contended that said ordinance prohibited the circulation of the printed page at the homes of the people of La-Grange when the same is not given away free, thus curtailing the freedom of the press and the free and uninterrupted distribution or circulation of the printed page, contrary to the due-process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, and contrary to the first amendment thereto, and contrary to article 1, section 1, paragraph 3, of the constitution of the State of Georgia (Code, § 2-103), and that the ordinance is invalid under the due-process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the consti
This court is asked to declare the above ordinance unconstitutional, or unreasonable or arbitrary. In order to justify a court in pronouncing a legislative act unconstitutional or a provision of a State constitution to be in contravention of the constitution of the United States, the case must be so clear as to be free from all doubt. 11 Am. Jur. 719, § 92. This same rule of construction ordinarily is applied by this court in passing on the validity of ordinances of a municipality the charter of which gives to it the right to make or pass such ordinances. 'However, “Municipal ordinances must be reasonable. The limitations of the power of a city council in this regard are not to be measured by the more extensive powers of the State legislature.” Mayor &c. of Savannah v. Cooper, 131 Ga. 670, 676 (63 S. E. 138). “Ordinances can not be oppressive or unreasonable, nor can they unfairly discriminate in favor of one citizen, or of one class, against another.” Toney v. Macon, 119 Ga. 83, 87 (46 S. E. 80); City of Acworth v. Western & Atlantic Railroad Co., 159 Ga. 610 (2) (126 S. E. 454). In approaching such a question, or in determining such a question, it should be borne in mind that there is a presumption in favor of the constitutionality of a legislative enactment. In Cooper v. Rollins, 152 Ga. 588 (110 S. E. 726, 20 A. L. R. 1105), it was said: “This court will not declare an act of the legislature unconstitutional, unless the conflict between the act and the constitution is clear and palpable.” An ordinance, however, may be declared invalid because unreasonable without declaring it unconstitutional. Richardson v. Coker, 188 Ga. 170 (3 S. E. 2d, 636); Chaires v. Atlanta, 164 Ga. 755 (139 S. E. 559, 55 A. L. R. 230) ; City of Acworth v. Western & Atlantic Railroad Co., supra; Mayor &c. of Savannah v. Cooper, supra. Such an ordinance as this one is undoubtedly an attempt by the municipality to exercise the police power given it by its charter. It contravenes no provision of the constitution
The police power is an attribute of sovereignty, and a necessary characteristic of every civilized government. It is inherent in the State of Georgia, and in municipal corporations where there have been express grants by the State through their charters. It is an inherent power of government, because the existence of government, as well as the social order, security, life, and'health of the individual citizen, depend upon it. In American government the police power is a grant from the people to their governmental agents. This is recognized by the constitution of Georgia, article 1, section 1, paragraph 1 (Code, § 2-101), which declares: "All government, of right, originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.” This police power may be said to be the bedrock of government; all other governmental powers are ancillary and corollary to it. Blackstone defines it as "The due regulation and domestic order of the Kingdom, whereby the individuals of the State, like members of a well-governed family, are bound to conform their general behavior to the rules of propriety, good neighborhood, and good manners, and to be decent, industrious, and inoffensive in their respective stations.” Sweet v. Rechel, 159 U. S. 380, 399 (16 Sup. Ct. 43, 40 L. ed. 188). It will be borne in mind that the Congress or legislature is but the authorized agent of the whole people, and that the constitution, whether State or Federal, is in respect to laws a limitation on the powers which are otherwise inherent in the people or their duly-constituted representatives. Therefore unless a statute or ordinance passed by a duly-constituted legislative authority is violative of the limitations placed on the police power by the constitution, or, as is more commonly stated, is repugnant to the constitution, it is not invalid.
When a law is attacked on the ground that it deprives a citizen of liberty or property without due process of law, we should call to mind that the underlying principle.of laws passed under the inherent police power of the government is that it is the duty of each citizen to use his property and exercise his rights and privileges
If a vocation or business, or the manner of exercising it, is injurious to the rights of others, or inconsistent with the public welfare, it may be regulated or prohibited altogether by the State or its delegated authorities. In Clein v. Atlanta, 164 Ga. 529, 535 (139 S. E. 46, 53 A. L. R. 933), the Supreme Court said: “Unless the regulations are so utterly unreasonable and extravagant that the property and personal rights of the citizens are unnecessarily, and in a manner wholly arbitrary, interfered with or destroyed without due process of law, they do not exceed the limits of the police power of the city to pass.” The power to regulate, however, does not imply the power to prohibit entirely, unless such business comes within a class that may be declared harmful. The regulations imposed on an ordinarily harmless business or vocation must not be
It may be well to state that this identical ordinance has been before the Supreme Court of this State. In Clay v. Mathews, 185 Ga. 279 (194 S. E. 172), Clay had been convicted of its violation, and after sentence and detention by the chief of police he applied for a writ of habeas corpus. In his petition he raised the question now before us. The Supreme Court was evenly divided, the judgment was affirmed by operation of law. We find a like diversity of opinion in foreign jurisdictions. In Town of Green River v. Fuller Brush Co., 65 Fed. 112 (9) (88 A. L. R. 177), it was held that an “ordinance declaring uninvited visitation of private residences by solicitors, peddlers, hawkers, itinerant merchants, and transient vendors, a nuisance,” was appropriate exercise of police power, and it was said: “We think like practices have become so general and common as to be of judicial knowledge, and that the frequent ringing of doorbells of private residences by itinerant vendors and solicitors is in fact a nuisance to the occupants of homes.” This decision was followed in Town of Green River v. Bunger, 50 Wyo. 52 (58 Pac. 2d, 456), where it was said: “The practice which the ordinance declares to be a nuisance might better be described as a succession of trespasses causing disturbance.” See City of Shreveport v. Cunningham, 190 La. 481 (182 So. 649).
On the other hand the court in our sister State of South Carolina, in passing on an ordinance framed in language identical with that of the one in the present case, held that it was unreasonable and void. City of Orangeburg v. Farmer, 181 S. C. 143, 150 (186 S. E. 783). After quoting South Carolina decisions, which follow the rule laid down in this State as to the reasonableness of ordinances, the court said: “We shall therefore attempt to apply the test of reasonableness to the ordinance in question. ' The ordinance declares that the mere soliciting of the sale of merchandise in and upon private residences is a nuisance, and levies a penalty upon such facts shown. The penalty is not based upon the conduct of the salesman, nor is the same based upon any valid shown reason of protecting the public health, nor is any other fact required save and except an act which in itself is legitimate.” The court further said that “the ordinance is unreasonable, unconsti
We do not mean to- say that the individual is not entitled to the right of privacy, and that where he so desires he can not himself prevent a visitation by such' solicitors'; for to persist after notice
Such an ordinance as this was upheld in City of Shreveport v. Cunningham, 190 La. 481 (182 So. 649), where it was stated that “unsuspecting housewives” might be imposed on and defrauded by strange solicitors, and that the ordinance was a protection to the people against “such fraud, deceit, cheating, and imposition.” We think that a person engaged in the business of soliciting sales, whether of commodities, books, or insurance, is engaged in a lawful occupation. It was said in Watson v. Thomson, supra, that “the right to follow any of the common avocations of life is an inalienable right.” The penalty provided by this ordinance is not based on the conduct of the solicitor or person entering, nor is it limited to the nighttime or other time. We can see why an ordinance preventing such solicitation after dark, or within certain limited hours, might have as a basis the prevention of criminals using this device to determine whether the occupant was at home, in order to commit a larceny. The ordinance makes no requirement as to a license to be obtained after production of evidence of good character, or to any other safeguard for the protection of public safety, health, or morals, but in effect prohibits and makes penal the going on the premises, irrespectively of character, respectability, or the fact that the householder might in fact desire the presence of such person though no invitation or request had been previously issued.
In Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390, 399 (43 Sup. Ct. 625, 67 L. ed. 1042, 29 A. L. R. 1446), the court, on observing with reference to a State statute that “the problem for our determination is whether the statute as construed and applied unreasonably infringes the liberty guaranteed to the plaintiff in error by the fourteenth amendment,” providing that “no State shall . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” used the following language which we think applicable in construing the ordinance now under consideration: “While this court has not attempted to define with exactness the liberty thus guaranteed,
An entry by a trespasser, as opposed to a licensee, implies an unwarranted or offensive intrusion on the premises. A license, with reference to a licensee, at least implies a permission to enter. Where the owner or occupant has indicated his unwillingness to have persons enter his premises we can readily see that such entry after such notice would constitute a trespass, and therefore that it might be deemed a nuisance. Where the law, in the absence of such notice, determines the status of the entry of such person on the premises as that of a licensee, it carries an implied permission. To arbitrarily declare that such act of a licensee is a nuisance is without the authority of the municipality. Police regulations of a trade or business deny due process of law if they are unreasonable, arbitrary, and extravagant in their interference with the property or personal rights of citizens. This ordinance arbitrarily declares, without any limitation, that it is a nuisance for a solicitor to go to
The decisions establishing these principles in this and other jurisdictions are numberless. In applying these principles to the ordinance in the present case we think it only necessary to say that it is an unreasonable interference with a property right, and has no reasonable or needed grounds for its enforcement. The householder can fully protect himself, or the municipality may aid in such protection when necessary. To arbitrarily declare, without qualification, that every solicitor who goes to a private home to try to conduct an otherwise perfectly legal business is a nuisance and subject to fine or imprisonment is an unreasonable interference with his normal, legal rights, without due process of law.
Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. Where an ordinance of a city is aimed at the prevention of trespasses, annoyances, conflicts, disorders, and breaches of the peace, and otherwise is reasonably apprehensive and corrective in principle, it is a legislative exercise of local self-government or police power, and in no wise encroaches on local or interstate commerce. This ordinance does not operate as a total exclusion or deprivation of the rights of the citizens, but merely regulates their enjoyment for the benefit of the inhabitants (especially the housewives) of the city; and I think that the city authorities in the exercise of their legislative powers have the right to protect the home by saying that the commercial world shall not invade it and make it a public market place, and thus convert it into a place of business without the consent of the owner. If the owner of a home wished her groceryman to call every morning and take her order, she could.of course instruct him so to do, and he would be an invitee; or she could invite any other person to her
Reference
- Full Case Name
- DeBERRY v. CITY OF LaGRANGE
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published