Tourne v. Lee
Tourne v. Lee
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court. The defendants, acting under the orders of the mayor of the city of New-Orleans, cut loose, and turned adrift, a raft of wood, belonginging to the plaintiffs, which
The defendants pleaded, that they were acting as officers of the corporation, under orders from the head of it. They prayed that the mayor, aldermen and inhabitants of the city, might be cited in warranty, and they discharged. The court correctly refused this demand. Trespassers, or those accused of trespassing on the rights of others, cannot relieve themselves from responsibility, by pleading, in defence, the authority of third persons.
The jury found a verdict for the defendants, and the plaintiffs appealed, after having fruitlessly attempted to have the verdict set aside, and a new trial granted in the court below.
The cause presents two questions. First, of fact: whether the raft was moored opposite the levee, in a place forbidden by the city regulations, and had remained there a sufficient length of time, to be obnoxious to their penalties: and second, of law: whether the ordinance was constitutional. The
We have no doubt the ordinance of the city council was constitutional in its prohibition, and the remedy it accorded for a violation of it. It is essentiel to the good police of the city, and the general convenience, that the corporation should be vested with the power to prescribe what portion of the port is appropriated to particular craft, and for what length of time, and on what conditions they can remain in the place assigned them. This, indeed, the appellants have not much contested, but it has been strenuously contended, that the remedy was a violation of the fundamental law of the state, because it deprived the citizen of his property, without a judgment of the court, pronounced after hearing him, or giving him an opportunity to be heard. As the corporation had the power of making regulations as to the place where rafts of wood should land, and how long they might remain, they had, in our judgment, the right to consider a violation of their ordinance on these matters, as a nuisance, and to treat it accordingly.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed, that the judgment of the parish court be affirmed, with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.