Case ID: njl_95/html/0034-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Swayze, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

JERSEY CITY LAND AND IMPROVEMENT COMPANY, PROSECUTOR, v. THE MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF JERSEY CITY, RESPONDENT.
    Argued June 2, 1920
    Decided July 8, 1920.
    An ordinance of Jersey City provided that in certain rented properties every room should be heated to a minimum temperature of sixty-eight degrees between the hours of six a. m. and ten p. m. whenever the outer or street temperature would fall below fifty degrees. There was proof that upon certain occasions the prosecutor’s premises were heated to a lower temperature than sixty-eight degrees, but no proof that the outer temperature had fallen below fifty degrees at such times. Held, that the proof is required to be strict in penal cases of this character, and for this failure of proof the conviction must be set aside.
    On certiorari.
    
    Before Justices Sway-ze, PARKER and Blaoic.
    For the- prosecutor, Merritt Lane.
    
    For the city, John Bentley (John Milton on the brief).'
   The opinion of the court was delivered by

Swayze, J.

This writ brings up a conviction for violation of a city ordinance with reference to the heating of buildings rented for residential or business purposes where people are employed. The essential provision is that which requires that every occupied room shall be heated “so- that a minimum temperature of sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit may be maintained therein at all such times.” The words “at all such times” are defined by the- ordinance “to include the time between the hours of six a. m. and ten p. M. in- a building or portion thereof occupied as a home or place of residence and during the usual working hours established and maintained in a building or portion thereof occupied as a business establishment, of each day, whenever the outer or street temperature shall fall below fifty degrees Fahrenheit.” The proof fails to show that there was a failure to provide for the minimum temperature required at any time when the outer or street temperature fell below fifty degrees. ■ There was proof that at the time the examination was made on, behalf of the city the rooms were heated to a temperature less than sixty-eight degrees,, but there was no, proof that at that time the outer or street temperature was below fifty degrees. Necessarily, the proof is required to be strict in penal cases of this character, and for this failure of proof the conviction must be set aside. .It will be time enough to pass upon the reasonableness of the ordinance when that question is necessarily before us.