State ex rel. Hohn v. Baker
State ex rel. Hohn v. Baker
Opinion of the Court
Relator alleged that she was accused of having violated Ordinance No. 13,032 as amended by Ordinance No. 13,485, C. S., relative to keepers of assignation houses.
That on the tenth day of December, 1900, she was charged upon information received with having violated said ordinance as amended, on the first day of December, 1900.
That before a hearing was accorded her, upon the aforesaid ordinance, and amended ordinance, she was additionally charged upon information received, with having' violated said ordinance relative to keeping an immoral house from day to day up to and including the 36th day of December, 1900, the day on which a hearing was granted, until thirteen charges had been preferred against her for the alleged violation thereof on as many different days; that on the day of trial it was agreed that all of the aforesaid charges should be consolidated; that upon the trial thereof, and notwithstanding that no evidence was adduced against relatrix other than that of previous bad reputation and former guilt, the recorder of the First Recorder’s Court of New Orleans did wrongfully and illegally pronounce relatrix guilty of conducting an immoral house in violation of said ordinance and sentenced her to pay fines under the several charges aggregating two hundred and forty dollars, and in default of payment to imprisonment in the parish prison exceeding six months; that the record discloses the fact that relatrix was charged with having violated said ordinance within the time allowed her to vacate and before the expiration of the five days’ delay allowed under the ordinance; that the record discloses the fact that relatrix owns the property in question, and uses it as hei; home; that the record discloses, also, the fact that there is not a scintilla of evidence therein showing that she kept an immoral hfruse on the days mentioned in the several affidavits, or that she conducted an immoral house since receiving the notice from the mayor that her house was used for immoral purposes; that the record discloses, also, that the testimony upon which the recorder relied, as establishing the guilt of relatrix refers to alleged violations of the ordinances long since past, and for which alleged violations relatrix paid the penalty shortly after the commission; that a conviction under such circumstances operates as a dual punishment for the same offence in violation of the law for such cases made and provided; that relatrix applied for and was granted a' suspensive appeal from said illegal sentence returnable to the Criminal District Court for
In view of the premises said orders and writs were prayed for.
The judge and the recorder were ordered to show cause why the writs prayed for should not issue and the judge of the Criminal District Court was ordered to send up a certified copy of the proceedings had before him in the consolidated eases mentioned, to the end that their validity might be ascertained, and, in the meantime, and until further orders of court, all further proceedings in those cases were restrained.
The district judge sent up the record, and the district judge and the recorder, for answer, averred that the record showed that at the time the accused was placed on trial before the recorder, she filed no demurrer to the affidavits, and consented to a consolidation of the affidavits filed; that at no time did the accused file any plea or exception to the jurisdiction of either the First Recorder’s Court, or to the jurisdiction of the Criminal District Court; that using the language of the Supreme Court in the ease of State ex rel. Baker vs. Judge of Second Recorder’s Court, “it was unquestionably settled that until a plea
Respondents prayed that the restraining order be set aside and that the writs applied for be denied and relatrix’s petition be dismissed at her costs.
Opinion.
No brief has been filed in this matter on behalf of t'he relatrix. We have, however, examined with care the record which has been sent up. We ascertain from it that an affidavit (Affidavit No. 645) was filed against relatrix in the First Recorder’s Court on the 10th of December, 1900, charging her with having violated on the 1st day of December, 1900, Ordinance No. 13,032 of the city of New Orleans, amended by Ordinance No. 13,485, relative to keeping an assignation house without the prescribed limits; that thereafter a second affidavit (Affidavit No. 648) was, on the 11th of December, 1900, filed against the same party, charging her, in the same court, with having violated the same ordinances on the 10th of December, 1900; that each day thereafter, commencing on the 12th of December, 1900, down to and inclusive of December 15th, 1900, distinct affidavits (Affidavits Nos. 650, 652,
The accused appealed to the Criminal District Court, and that court having affirmed the judgment, this application was made.
We do not discover any irregularities or nullities in the proceedings. Defendant’s witnesses were heard as well as those of the city, and though both courts may have erred in their conclusions as to the weight' and sufficiency of the evidence to establish the guilt of-the accused that simple fact of itself would not warrant us in decreeing the proceedings or the judgments null and void and setting them aside.'
Relatrix is in error in supposing that because evidence was permitted to be introduced over her objections showing prior violations by her of the same ordinances and for the violation of which she had paid the penalty, that she was tried and found guilty a second time for those past violations and would be made to be punished twice for the 'same
Relatrix denies the right and authority of the prosecuting officers of the city to have charged her on successive days and through separate affidavits with having committed separate offenses for each day that she might have kept an assignation house within the forbidden limits. She claims that she would be guilty of one single offense and subject to one single punishment and that within the limit of the punishment which- the recorder could impose for a single offense. The ordinances which she is charged with having violated make each day’s keeping of an assignation house a separate offense. The making of each day’s keeping open of such a house a separate offense was not the act of the recorder nor of the city authorities, but of the ordinances themselves. This identical question was before this court in State ex rel. Baker vs. Judge, 43 Ann. 1120, and decided adversely to the position taken by relatrix. The same question was similarly decided by the Supreme Court of Vermont in State vs. O’Neill, reported in 58 Vermont, 140, and referred to in O’Neill vs. Vermont, in the 144 U. S. Reports, 333 and 334.
The following extracts from Horr & Bemiss’ work on Municipal Ordinances, Section 152 (supported therein by authorities), bear upon this subject:
“In determining the validity of a judgment imposing a fine care must be had to discriminate between offenses that are several and distinct, and those that are continuing. Distinct offenses of the same nature may under some codes of procedure be prosecuted in one and the same action, in which ease the full limit of the law may be adjudged against the offender for each, regardless of the fact that the total fine thus imposed far exceeds the bounds of the jurisdiction of the local court. For instance, one might make any number of unlawful sales of intoxicating liquors on the same day, and each sale would be a distinct offense punishable separately.”
Other acts that constitute offenses against ordinances are continuing; that is, they may have numerous consecutive results, each of which may be considered an offense. Thus, if a person erect a huisance, not only the primary erection but also each day’s continuance, is a menace to public rights. A prosecution, however, would needs cover the tota1
In the present case no affidavit charged more than one offense for a single day’s infraction. (See Brown on Jurisdiction, Sec. 107.)
As we have said, the affidavits are separate and distinct, and so, also, were the judgments and sentences.
We are of the opinion that relatrix presents no ease for our interference.
It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the application of relatrix is refused, and that the restraining order heretofore granted be set aside, that the application be dismissed, and that relatrix pay the costs of the. proceeding.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State ex rel. Louisa Hohn v. Joshua G. Baker, Judge of the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, and James Hughes, Recorder of the First Recorder's Court for the City of New Orleans
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Syllabus. 1. Where by an ordinance of the city of New Orleans the doing of a certain act is prohibited as a public nuisance, and violation of the ordinance made punishable by fine or Imprisonment, and each day’s continuance of the nuisance is made a separate offence, a party convicted by a recorder upon separate and distinct and successive charges for violation on successive days of the ordinance, and separately sentenced upon each charge, cannot by certiorari have the sentence set aside as being an illegal division into different offences of a single offence, where in none of the complaints is the party charged with^more than one day’s infraction of the ordinance. 2. The fact that evidence of the conviction of the accused of a prior and similar offence has been permitted to be introduced in evidence on his trial for the later offence and has s'erved as a “make weight” in the determination of the later charge, does not justify the claim that the party has been found guilty and punished a second time for the original offence, where other evidence has been introduced in support of the later charge, and the evidence of the prior conviction has been introduced by way of corroboration.