Case ID: ohio-st_11/html/0688-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Bx the court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

James Thompson v. The City of Mount Vernon.
    The ordinance of a municipal corporation, prohibiting the sale of pure Ohio-wine, ale, beer and cider, to be drank where sold, and prohibiting the sale of such liquors in less quantity than one gallon, is void, because inconsistent with and against the policy of the general statute of May 1, 1854, “to provide-against the evils resulting from the sale of intoxicating liquors in the State-of Ohio.”
    Error to the mayor’s court of the city of Mount Vernon..
    The following are the first and fourth sections of an ordinance of the city council of Mount Vernon, passed March 23,. 1858:
    
      “ Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the city council of the city of Mount Vernon, Ohio, That it shall be unlawful for any person or persons keeping any tavern, grocery, bazaar, eating-house, drug-store, office, shop, saloon, stall, booth, orient, or other place of public resort, within the city of Mount Vernon, by agent or otherwise, to sell or give away, or permit to be taken, under any shift or device to evade the provisions-of this ordinance, in any quantity, spiritous or intoxicating-liquors, wine, cider over thirty days from the press, ale, porter, beer, or other fermented beverages, of any kind or description whatsoever, to be drank in or about the building, premises, or place where sold, given away, or permitted to be taken or to be drank in any adjoining building, room, or place, or other place of public resort connected with the place where sold, given away, or suffered to be taken, as aforesaid.”
    
      “ Sec. 4. It shall be unlawful for any person, by agent or otherwise, within the limits of the city, to sell, give- away, or suffer to be taken, any of the liquors and beverages specified in the first section of this ordinance, in less quantity than one-gallon at one time, provided that the provisions of this section shall not apply to sales made in pursuance of a written prescription of a practicing physician, as a medicine, or to sales made to mechanics or artists, who use it in their business, for the purpose of-being so used.”
    The plaintiff in error was charged with a violation of the-said fourth section of the ordinance, in an affidavit, of which the following is a copy:
    “ That, on or about the fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty eight, at the city of Mount Vernon, aforesaid, one James Thompson did, unlawfully and knowingly, violate the fourth section of an ordinance of said city, to prohibit ale, porter and beer shops,, and other places of resort for tippling and intemperance, passed on the 23d day of March, A. D. 1858, by selling a certain liquor or beverage, prohibited and forbidden by said ordinance, to A. H. Hollibough, and other persons, within the limits of said city, in less quantities than one gallon at onetime ; the same not being sold by the said James Thompson in pursuance of a written prescription of a practicing physician,, as a medicine, nor to mechanics or artists who use it in their business, for the purposes of being so used.”
    On this charge, the plaintiff in error was arrested, tried, convicted, and adjudged to pay a fine of fifty dollars.
    To reverse this judgment, a writ of error was prosecuted.
    
      Dunbar & Banning, for plaintiff in error.
   Bx the court.

This case is, in effect, decided in the case of the City of Canton v. Nist, 9 Ohio St. Rep. 439. The first and fourth sections of this ordinance are void, because inconsistent with and against the policy of the general statute of the State, “ to provide against the evils resulting from the gale of intoxicating liquors in the State of Ohio,” passed May 1, 1854.

Judgment reversed.