Case Title: State v. Gamble Skogmo, Inc.

Citation: 144 N.W.2d 749

Docket Number: 

State: north-dakota

Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

Date: 1966-08-16T00:00:00Z

Document:
144 N.W.2d 749 (1966) The STATE of North Dakota, Respondent, v. GAMBLE SKOGMO, INC., a. k. a. Tempo Stores Corporation, Defendant and Appellant. No. Cr. 339. Supreme Court of North Dakota. August 16, 1966. *753 Bosard, McCutcheon & Coyne, Minot, for appellant. *754 Richard B. Thomas, State's Atty., Minot, for respondent. ERICKSTAD, Judge. In this case the defendant, Gamble Skogmo, Inc., also known as Tempo Stores Corporation, was charged with the offense of Sabbath breaking under §§ 12-02-04, 12-21-15, and 12-21-16, N.D.C.C. Trial was before the County Judge with Increased Jurisdiction of Ward County, the defendant having waived a jury. As the defendant is commonly known and advertises as Tempo, we shall hereafter refer to it by that name. The essential facts are not in dispute. In the December 4, 1965, issue of the Minot Daily News, Tempo placed a large advertisement encompassing approximately two-thirds of page 3, informing the public that it would be open on Sunday, December 5, from 1:00 to 6:00 p. m. It announced special sales for Sunday, December 5, on toothpaste, items of clothing, motor oil, overshoes, soft drinks, toys, candy, battery booster cables, hair spray, sheet blankets, and sugar in five-pound bags. Part of the advertisement read as follows: "SUNDAY attend the church of your choice in the morning. Bring the family to Tempo in the afternoon. [The word SUNDAY was in lettering 2¾ inches high and extended across the width of the page.] "We have extended our shopping hours from 72 per week to 77 for your shopping convenience. We will be open Sunday from 1 to 6 p. m. Bring the family and shop now for your holiday needs. We offer you, the shopper, gift wrapping service, travelers checks, money orders, gift certificates, notary public service and you can pay all your utility bills at Tempo. Our display floor is stocked with over 27,000 items to choose from. No money needed, just say `charge it'." On Sunday, December 5, pursuant to its advertisement, Tempo opened its doors to the public and, with all of its many items exposed for sale, it was engaged in the sale of whatever items of merchandise its customers desired to purchase when officials of the sheriff's office arrested two of its clerks after they sold two electric extension cords to a customer then present. It is clear from the evidence that Tempo (a large discount store) was open on Sunday for the general sale of merchandise and that the specific sale for which it was charged was within the authority of its clerks, pursuant to direction from its management. At the close of the trial Tempo moved that the charges be dismissed on the ground that the testimony and evidence adduced by the State did not show the commission of a public offense for the reason that §§ 12-21-15 and 12-21-16, N.D.C.C., upon which the charges were based, violate Article I, Article V, and § 1 of Article XIV of the Amendments to the United States Constitution and §§ 4 and 20 of the North Dakota Constitution. This motion was resisted by the State's Attorney of Ward County and was denied by the court. Tempo was thereafter found guilty of Sabbath breaking and was sentenced to pay a $50.00 fine and $200.00 costs. The appeal is from the judgment of conviction and sentence imposed. We shall consider the arguments of Tempo in the order in which they have been stated in its brief. The first argument is in two parts: The first part is that § 12-21-15, N.D.C.C., violates Article XIV of the Amendments to the United States Constitution and § 20 of the North Dakota Constitution as a law depriving Tempo of its liberty and property without due process of law and denying it the equal protection of the laws. The second part is that the enforcement of § 12-21-15 lacks any semblance of consistency or justice and thus is a denial of equal protection. *755 The following quotation from Tempo's brief discloses its reasoning: The statutes upon which the information was based follow: North Dakota Century Code. Other statutes pertinent to the issues raised in this case read as follows: Other sections of the North Dakota Century Code relating to Sunday closing are § 53-01-13, prohibiting boxing, sparring, and wrestling exhibitions on Sunday, and § 40-05-03, permitting cities of certain size to prohibit the operation on Sunday of food markets, stores, and other places where food intended for human consumption is sold at retail. The argument that the classifications contained in the statute were without rational relation to the object of the legislation was presented to the United States Supreme Court in 1960 in the case of McGowan v. State of Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 81 S. Ct. 1101, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393. In that case employees of a large discount department store located on a highway in Maryland were indicted for the Sunday sale in violation of Maryland law of a 3-ring loose-leaf binder, a can of floor wax, a stapler and staples, and a toy submarine. The specific statute under which they were indicted generally prohibited throughout the state the Sunday sale of all merchandise except the retail sale of tobacco products, confectioneries, milk, bread, fruits, gasoline, oil, greases, drugs and medicines, and newpapers and periodicals. Another section of the code prohibited all persons from doing any work or bodily labor on Sunday and prohibited permitting children or servants to work on that day or to engage in fishing, hunting, or unlawful pastimes or recreations. That section excepts all works of necessity and charity. Another section of the Maryland code disallowed the opening or use of any dancing saloon, opera house, bowling alley, or barber shop on Sunday. Special provisions related to Anne Arundel County. Another section generally made unlawful the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday; however, other sections provided various immunities for the Sunday sale of different kinds of alcoholic beverages at different hours during the day by vendors holding different types of licenses in different political subdivisions of the state. Other statutory sections provided for a myriad of exceptions for various counties, districts of counties, cities, and towns throughout the state. Chief Justice Warren, speaking for the majority of the court, addressed himself to the point raised as follows: 2 Companion arguments made by appellants are that the exceptions to the Sunday sale's prohibition so undermine the alleged purpose of Sunday as a day of rest as to bear no rational relationship to it and thereby render the statutes violative of due process; that the distinctions drawn by the statutes are so unreasonable as to violate due process. 3 More recently we declared: allege that the statutory exemptions for the Sunday sale of the merchandise mentioned above render arbitrary the statute under which they were convicted. Appellants further allege that § 521 is capricious because of the exemptions for the operation of the various amusements that have been listed and because slot machines, pinball machines, and bingo are legalized and are freely played on Sunday. Justice Frankfurter, in a special concurring opinion to McGowan and three other decisions concerning Sunday closing statutes then before the Court, stated these arguments and met them in the following manner: 121 Consider Mr. Loftus' comments on the proposed Shops (Sunday Trading Restriction) Bill before the House of Commons in 1936: "During the last 20 years there has been a very great change in the habits of our peoplea change for the better. Vast masses of our people, in fact, literally millions, go out into the countryside on fine Sunday afternoons in the Summer, and that is good for their health; it is good for the mind as well as the body that they should do so. Going into the country * * * they have been accustomed to certain facilities in the way of obtaining refreshment, fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables to bring home, and it would be regretted, particularly by the working classes, if there was any interference by legislation that would stop those facilities or check the tendency of our people to go into the country and to take advantage of the amenities of the countryside. * * * 122 Id., at 2200-2201. McGowan v. State of Maryland [Opinion of Frankfurter, J.], 366 U.S. 420, at 523-526, 81 S. Ct. 1101, at 1188-1189, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393. Justice Frankfurter then discussed the historical development of the Sunday laws, the significance of the exception for works of necessity and charity, and the difficulty of ascertaining what is necessity: 130 One may trace in these exceptions the evolving habits of life of the people. Compare State v. Hogreiver, 152 Ind. 652, 53 N.E. 921, 45 L.R.A. 504 (1899), sustaining a statute specifically prohibiting Sunday baseball, with Carr v. State, 175 Ind. 241, 93 N.E. 1071, 32 L.R.A., N.S., 1190 (1911), sustaining a statute excepting baseball from the general Sunday prohibition. Justice Frankfurter, after conceding that, unlike their virtually unanimous attitude on the issue of religious freedom, state courts have not always sustained Sunday legislation against the charge of unconstitutional discrimination, said: In answering the argument that the Maryland statute was rendered arbitrary by its exceptions, Justice Frankfurter said: In discussing the statute attacked in the case of Gallagher v. Crown Kosher *763 Super Market, 366 U.S. 617, 81 S. Ct. 1122, 6 L. Ed. 2d 536, Justice Frankfurter pointed out that a statute is not to be struck down on the supposition that various differently treated situations may in fact be the same: Referring to Williamson v. Lee Optical, Inc., 348 U.S. 483, at 489, 75 S. Ct. 461, 99 L. Ed. 563, Justice Frankfurter pointed out that the prohibition of the Equal Protection Clause goes no further than the invidious discrimination. McGowan v. State of Maryland, supra, 366 U.S. 420, at 540, 81 S. Ct. 1101. Although the statutes of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts vary in certain immaterial respects from our statutes on Sunday closing, they are similar in material respects. We believe that the objections raised by Tempo in the instant case are similar to the objections raised by the various parties in McGowan v. State of Maryland, supra; Two Guys from Harrison-Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley, 366 U.S. 582, 81 S. Ct. 1135, 6 L. Ed. 2d 551; Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599, 81 S. Ct. 1144, 6 L. Ed. 2d 563; and Gallagher v. Crown Kosher Super Market, supra, which objections were very carefully analyzed by the United States Supreme Court and found not to violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Applying the rules described herein as set forth by the United States Supreme Court, we find no invidious discrimination in the instant case. Accordingly, we hold that § 12-21-15, N.D.C.C., does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or § 20 of the North Dakota Constitution. There is also no basis in the record for finding, as Tempo would have us do, that there has been such discriminatory enforcement of the Sunday closing statute that the enforcement of the statute should be enjoined or the statute should be declared unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of its argument in this respect Tempo referred the Court to the cases of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S. Ct. 1064, 30 L. Ed. 220; East Coast Lumber Terminal v. Town of Babylon, 174 F.2d 106, 8 A.L.R.2d 1219 (2d Cir. 1949); Louisville & Nashville R. Co. v. Faulkner, 307 S.W.2d 196 (Ky.1957); and United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 58 S. Ct. 778, 82 L. Ed. 1234. We have carefully studied Yick Wo and believe that it is clearly distinguishable from the instant case. In Yick Wo the Supreme Court found that the ordinance under consideration conferred, not a discretion to be exercised upon a consideration of the circumstances of each case, but a naked and arbitrary power to give or withhold consent, not only as to places but as to persons. The Court said that in that case they were not obliged to reason from the probable to the actual and pass upon the validity of the ordinances complained of, as tried merely by the opportunties which their terms afforded of unequal and unjust discrimination in their administration, for the cases presented the ordinances in actual operation, and the facts established an administration directed so exclusively against a particular class of persons as to warrant and require the conclusion that, whatever may have been the intent of the ordinances as adopted, they were applied by the public authorities charged with their administration with a mind so unequal and oppressive as to amount to a practical denial by the state of the equal protection of the laws. The Court found that the petitioners, who were applicants for licenses to operate laundries within wooden buildings, had complied *764 with every requisite deemed by the law or by the public officers charged with its administration necessary for the protection of neighboring property from fire or as a precaution against injury to the public health, and that no reason whatever except the will of the supervisors was assigned why they should not be permitted to carry on in the accustomed manner their harmless and useful occupation on which they depended for a livelihood. The Court further found that, while this consent of the supervisors was withheld from them and from two hundred others, all of whom happened to be Chinese subjects, eighty others not Chinese subjects were permitted to carry on the same business under similar conditions. The Court found this discrimination a denial of the equal protection of the laws and a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Citing other federal decisions as authority the Court said: In the instant case there is no evidence indicating that others in the same category as Tempo were permitted to be open on Sunday while Tempo was prohibited from being open. We do not believe that purposeful or intentional discrimination such as would constitute a denial of equal protection could be found without such a showing. Chief Judge Learned Hand, speaking for the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in East Coast Lumber Terminal v. Town of Babylon, supra, merely acknowledged that it had been the law for over sixty years that the Fourteenth Amendment covered the unequal enforcement of valid laws as well as any enforcement of invalid laws. Tempo bases its contention that it has been unlawfully discriminated against in being prosecuted for its violation of the Sunday closing law partly on the testimony of the sheriff of Ward County that the law is generally not enforced in the City of Minot; that subsection 2 of § 12-21-15, relating to the prohibition of public sports, is not enforced; that no attempt is made to enforce the law as it might apply to the operations of the state fair on Sundays; and that he believed "a lot of laws are enforced such as this law by perhaps public opinion or where there might be infringement, as in this particular case, on other businesses." Part of his testimony follows: It also relies on the testimony of the deputy sheriff of Ward County that the midway at the fairground consists of a large carnival, which offers rides, shows, and contests; that food, soft drinks, souvenirs, and merchandise are sold on the fairgrounds; and that the Nodak Racing Club races on the fairgrounds. This testimony indicates a general laxity on the part of the sheriff and his deputy in enforcing sections of the act other than the section under which Tempo was prosecuted. It does not disclose an intentional or a purposeful discrimination *765 against Tempo. Mere laxity in the enforcement of a criminal statute is not a denial of the equal protection of the laws. See: State v. Hicks, 213 Or. 619, 325 P.2d 794, cert. denied 359 U.S. 917, 79 S. Ct. 594, 3 L. Ed. 2d 579; Sims v. Cunningham, 203 Va. 347, 124 S.E.2d 221, cert. denied 371 U.S. 840, 83 S. Ct. 68, 9 L. Ed. 2d 76. Other cases concerning this issue are: Wade v. City and County of San Francisco, 82 Cal. App. 2d 337, 186 P.2d 181; State v. Solomon, 245 S.C. 550, 141 S.E.2d 818, appeal dismissed 382 U.S. 204, 86 S. Ct. 396, 15 L. Ed. 2d 270. As was said by the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in a decision rendered in 1963: In that case Mr. Moss, who operated a shoe store in Brookfield, Connecticut, was charged with keeping his store open on Sunday. He sought to enjoin Mr. Hornig, the Prosecuting Attorney, from prosecuting him. It is clear that Tempo has failed to show an arbitrary and intentionally unfair discrimination in the administration of the law as in Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, at 374, 6 S. Ct. 1064, 30 L. Ed. 220. There has been no offer to show that the circumstances of the state fair or others generally referred to were so much alike as to render any discrimination in the application of the law equivalent to a denial of the equal protection of the laws. See Mackay Telegraph & Cable Co. v. City of Little Rock, 250 U.S. 94, at 100, 39 S. Ct. 428, 63 L. Ed. 863. The burden of proving intentional or purposeful discrimination in the enforcement of a law is upon the party attempting to have the statute set aside. In this case the burden falls upon Tempo, and it is our view that it has failed in its proof. We conclude our consideration of this phase of the appeal with a quotation from American Jurisprudence which we believe to be pertinent: *766 The second major argument made by Tempo in its appeal is that § 12-21-15, N.D.C.C., violates Article I of the Amendments to the United States Constitution as a prohibited law respecting an establishment of religion. We start our consideration of this question with a quotation from the opinion written by Justice Black in Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 67 S. Ct. 504, 91 L. Ed. 711, 168 A.L.R. 1392: Everson v. Board of Education, supra, 330 U.S. 1, at 15-18, 67 S. Ct. 504, at 511-513. Tempo states that the question which arises here is "whether our Sunday law is social welfare rather than religious in nature." In support of its contention that the statute is religious in nature and therefore must be struck down, it refers us to the introductory phrases of § 12-21-15, which read: "The first day of the week being by general consent set apart for rest and religious uses, the following acts are forbidden to be done on that day, the doing of any of which is Sabbath breaking." It also directs our attention to the language this court used in the case of State ex rel. Temple v. Barnes, 22 N.D. 18, 132 N.W. 215, 37 L.R.A.,N.S., 114, in which we said: Tempo contends that a further indication that our statute is religious in nature is shown by the use of the words "holy time" in § 12-21-17 and by the fact that §§ 12-21-15 and 12-21-16 appear in the Century Code under the chapter entitled "Offenses Against Religion and Conscience." It concludes this argument with the statement that § 12-21-15 has the effect of aiding one religion, namely the Sunday-observing Christian religion, in preference to those religions which observe a holy day other than Sunday, and that it is therefore unconstitutional. Before discussing this proposition generally, we should like to point out that, although this court in the 1911 case of State ex rel. Temple v. Barnes indicated through historical references that the Sunday-closing laws in this country had a religious origin, it nevertheless found that our statute which prohibited the running of a theater on Sunday did not contravene the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment. In so concluding this court said: Finding that the statute complained of did none of those things, the Court found the statute valid as against the objection considered. Chief Justice Warren, speaking for the majority in McGowan v. State of Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 81 S. Ct. 1101, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393, met the argument that the language of the statutes and the early judicial decisions substantiated the establishment argument by saying that there was no dispute that the original laws which dealt with Sunday labor were motivated by religious forces but said that what must be decided now is whether present Sunday legislation, having undergone extensive changes from the earliest forms, still retains its religious character. He traced the Sunday closing laws back to the 13th century when, in 1237, Henry III forbade the frequenting of markets on Sunday. He pointed out that, despite the strongly religious origin of the Sunday closing laws, beginning before the 18th century non-religious arguments for Sunday closing began to be heard more distinctly, and the statutes began to lose some of their totally religious flavor. He noted that proponents of Sunday closing legislation are no longer exclusively representatives of religious interests, as evidenced by recent New Jersey Sunday legislation which was supported by labor groups and trade associations, and by the promotion of modern English Sunday legislation by the National Federation of Grocers, the National Chamber of Trade, the Drapers Chamber of Trade, and the National Union of Shop *768 Assistants. He stressed further that throughout the years state legislatures have modified, deleted from, and added to their Sunday statutes. He observed that litigation over Sunday closing laws is not novel, and that, although scores of cases may be found in the state appellate courts relating to sundry phases of Sunday enactments and although religious objections have been raised there on numerous occasions, they have been sustained only once, in Ex parte Newman, 9 Cal. 502 (1858), and that that decision was overruled three years later in Ex parte Andrews, 18 Cal. 679 (1861). Chief Justice Warren further pointed out that the United States Supreme Court had considered the happenings surrounding the Virginia General Assembly's enactment in 1785 of "An act for establishing religious freedom," 12 Hening's Statutes of Virginia 84, written by Thomas Jefferson and sponsored by James Madison, as best reflecting the long and intensive struggle for religious freedom in America and as particularly relevant in the search for the First Amendment's meaning. He emphasized that in 1799 Virginia pronounced the act as "a true exposition of the principles of the bill of rights and constitution," and repealed all subsequently enacted legislation deemed inconsistent with it, but that Virginia's statute banning Sunday labor stood. It was his view that the Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution does not ban federal or state regulation of conduct the reason or effect of which merely happens to coincide with the tenets of some or all religions. In support of this view he said: In reviewing the Maryland statutes he found that the title of the major series of sections of the Maryland code dealing with Sunday closing is "Sabbath Breaking"; that a certain section proscribed work or bodily labor on the "Lord's Day," and forbade persons to "profane the Lord's Day" by gaming, fishing, etc.; that another section referred to Sunday as the "Sabbath Day"; that many of the exempted Sunday activities could be conducted only during the afternoon and late evening, times when Christian church services were normally not held; and, finally, that certain localities did not permit allowed Sunday activities to be carried on within one hundred yards of any church where religious services were being held. He also found that some judicial statements in early Maryland decisions tended to support the contention that the statutes had a religious purpose. In spite of these facts, by considering the language and operative effect of the current statutes, he found that their purpose was that of providing a Sunday atmosphere of recreation, cheerfulness, repose, and enjoyment, rather than one of religion. Analyzing our North Dakota statutes on Sunday closing, we find a parallel. It would appear that our statutes may have had a religious origin, that even today some of the statutes contain language of a religious significance, and that our decision in State ex rel. Temple v. Barnes, 22 N.D. 18, 132 N.W. 215, seems to quote Judge Story's views with some approval. Even so, the fact that our Sunday closing statutes now permit the operation on Sunday of *769 theaters showing motion pictures and other theatrical performances for profit or otherwise, the operation on Sunday of bowling alleys, and the operation on Sunday by Chautauqua associations, summer resorts, firms, corporations, and private persons of bath houses, bathing beaches, and pleasure boats of all kinds, indicates that the basic purpose of the Sunday closing laws in North Dakota today is the same as it has been determined to be in Maryland and many other states, that is, rest and recreation. We therefore conclude, as the Maryland court did, that the present purpose of our Sunday closing statutes is, not to aid religion, but to set aside a day of rest and recreation. The third argument made by Tempo in its brief is that § 12-21-15, N.D.C.C., violates Article I of the Amendments to the United States Constitution and § 4 of the North Dakota Constitution, as a law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. This argument we need not consider, as Tempo alleges only economic injury to it as a corporation, and does not allege infringement of a specific religion embraced by its stockholders, employees, or customers. As the general rule is that a litigant may assert only his own constitutional rights or immunities and as Tempo has presented no weighty countervailing policies here to cause an exception to the general rule, we hold that it has no standing to raise the contention that the statute prohibits the free exercise of religion contrary to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. McGowan v. State of Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, at 429, 81 S. Ct. 1101, 6 L. Ed. 2d 393. We accordingly affirm the judgment of the trial court. TEIGEN, C. J., and KNUDSON and MURRAY, JJ., concur. STRUTZ, Judge (concurring specially). While I fully concur in the well-written opinion of the majority in this case, and although I realize that the appellant has not urged that the designation of a day of rest is not a proper exercise of the police power of the State, I do believe it is well to point out, in addition to what has been said by the majority, that the principle which permits the doing of certain work and business on the first day of the week, and which prohibits the doing of other work on that day, is that the State, as the sovereign and in the exercise of its police power, does have the absolute right to prescribe a day of rest in the interests of the health and morals of its people. State v. Diamond, 56 N.D. 854, 219 N.W. 831. It may be true that any other day would be as suitable as the first day of the week as such day of rest. But the State of North Dakota, through its Legislative Assembly, has the right to designate which day shall be observed as the day of rest. The mere fact that the Legislature has designated as such day one which most of its citizens also observe as a religious day, does not, by reason of that fact, make the designation of the first day of the week unlawful and in violation of the establishment-of-religion clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Since the appellant has not shown that the issues involved in this lawsuit violate any provisions of the Federal or State constitutions, the decision of the county court is properly affirmed.