Case Title: State v. Deutch

Citation: 161 So. 2d 730, 245 La. 819

Docket Number: 

State: louisiana

Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Date: 1964-02-24T00:00:00Z

Document:
161 So. 2d 730 (1964) 245 La. 819 STATE of Louisiana v. Sidney DEUTCH. No. 46784. Supreme Court of Louisiana. February 24, 1964. Rehearing Denied March 30, 1964. Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen., M. E. Culligan, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jim Garrison, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellant. Hubert, Baldwin & Zibilich, Leon D. Hubert, Jr., Edward M. Baldwin, Vincent T. LoCoco, New Orleans, for appellee. HAMLIN, Justice. The defendant was charged by bill of information with having committed the offense of wilfully and unlawfully selling *731 building materials on a Sunday (November 25, 1962),[1] a violation of LSA-R.S. 51:194 (Act 273 of 1962) which recites: "Sunday sale of certain consumer goods prohibited; penalties; injunctive relief; exemptions *732 The defendant filed the following motion to quash the bill of information: The defendant filed an amended motion to quash, wherein he averred that the information filed against him did not state an offense within the statute, LSA-R.S. 51:194(A), under which the charges were made. The trial court sustained the motion to quash the bill of information on the ground that Act 273 of 1962 (LSA-R.S. 51:194) is unconstitutional insofar as the term "Building Supply Materials" is concerned; it set aside the bill of information and discharged the defendant. The court denied the supplemental and amended motion to quash the bill of information. In its ruling with respect to the unconstitutionality of the instant statute, the court stated in part: The State has appealed to this Court from the above judgment and asserts herein that: Initially, it is pertinent to remark that Sunday Laws per se are enacted as legitimate exercises of the police power of the State and are not violative of any inhibition contained in either the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the State of Louisiana. State ex rel. Walker v. Judge of Section A., 39 La.Ann. 132, 1 So. 437. Despite the avowed purposes of Sunday Laws, we are fully cognizant of the fact that in order for such laws to be violated and their violation constitute an offense against the State, the laws themselves must be valid and constitutional. Defendant contends that the application of LSA-R.S. 51:194 to the selling of hardware stock by him, a co-proprietor of Harry's Hardware in New Orleans, must depend upon the meaning of the phrase "Building Supply Materials" in the statute, since no other clauses can possibly apply to the selling of hardware stock. He argues that the statute does not define the meaning of "Building Supply Materials", and that the terms have no well defined nor commonly accepted meaning. It is true that LSA-R.S. 51:194, which appears in the Revised Statutes under Title 51, Trade and Commerce, merely prohibits the sale of "Lumber or Building Supply Materials" on Sunday and does not detail what such "Building Supply Materials" are; but, we find that despite the absence of a detailed specification, the general phraseology has a fixed, definite, or commonly understood meaning and application. State v. Robertson, 241 La. 249, 128 So. 2d 646, 648. An examination of the jurisprudence and other statutory law, which we are permitted to consider (State v. De Hart, 109 La. 570, 33 So. 605; State v. Viator, 229 La. 882, 87 So. 2d 115; State v. Guimbellot, 232 La. 1043, 95 So. 2d 650; State v. Hightower, 238 La. 876, 116 So. 2d 699; Barnett v. Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans, La.App., 51 So. 2d 634; State v. Pete, 206 La. 1078, 20 So. 2d 368; Marino v. City of Baton Rouge, La.App., 61 So.2d 588), convinces us that our finding, supra, is correct. We find: The Commission continues: It is a matter of common knowledge that "Building Supply Materials" are such materials as are used in the construction of a building; this general phraseology has a fixed, definite, and commonly understood meaning and application. It is also a matter of common knowledge that lumber, nails, screen wire, and paint are employed in the construction of a building. In corroboration of this common knowledge, the law makers and the courts, supra, have had occasion in many instances to refer to lumber and paint as "Building Supply Materials", and it leaps to the mind that nails and screen wire are also "Building Supply Materials." It was not necessary, in order to satisfy the constitutional requirements set forth, supra, that a detailed specification follow the phrase "Lumber or Building Supply Materials" recited in LSA-R.S. 51:194. The Legislature is not required to do the impossible or even the impracticable, and absolute detailed certainty with the precision of a mathematical formula is not exacted of the lawmaker. Therefore, it was not required that the Legislature enumerate in LSA-R.S. 51:194 the specific uses to which "Building Supply Materials" would have to be put in order to constitute such articles "Building Supply Materials"; neither was it necessary that the Legislature set forth quantity or volume as a criteria for the violation of the Statute insofar as "Building Supply Materials" are concerned. The Statute sufficiently apprizes the seller as to what he is prohibited from selling on Sunday. In discussing the history of the instant Statute in brief, counsel for defendant urges that "hardware" was included in a preliminary draft thereof; it is contended that the omission of the term "hardware" from said Statute makes it vague. The simple answer to counsel's contention is that defendant is charged with having sold "Building Supply Materials" on a Sunday. * * * We conclude that Act 273 of 1962 (LSA-R.S. 51:194) is constitutional insofar *737 as the term "Building Supply Materials" is concerned. Because of our findings set forth above, we do not feel that it is incumbent upon us to pass on the third contention advanced by the State. The trial judge held that the bill of information herein filed does state an offense within the statute; the sufficiency of the bill of information is not presently before us, and the trial judge's ruling on the sufficiency of the bill of information itself can be reviewed in the event of a conviction. For the reasons assigned, the judgment of the trial court sustaining the motion to quash the instant bill of information on the ground that Act 273 of 1962 (LSA-R.S. 51:194) is unconstitutional insofar as the term "Building Supply Materials" is concerned is reversed and set aside. It is now ordered that the cause be remanded for trial. [1] "* * * on the twenty-fifth day of November in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and sixty two with force and arms in the Parish of Orleans aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, did wilfully and unlawfully sell building materials, to-wit: roofing nails, white paint and screen wire on a Sunday, contrary to the form of the Statute of the State of Louisiana in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the same." [2] The basic Sunday Laws of this State are set out in LSA-R.S. 51:191-51:193, which recite: "Places of business to be closed; penalty "All stores, shops, saloons, and all places of public business, licensed under the law of Louisiana or under any parochial or municipal law and all plantation stores, shall be closed at twelve o'clock on Saturday nights, and remain closed continuously for twenty-four hours, during which time no proprietor thereof shall give, trade, barter, exchange or sell any of the stock or any article of merchandise kept in his establishment. "Whoever violates this Section shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or imprisoned for not less than ten days nor more than thirty days, or both for each offense." LSA-R.S. 51:191. "Exemptions "The provisions of R.S. 51:191 shall not apply to newsdealers, the sale of ice, watering places and public parks, places of resort for recreation and health, newspaper offices, keepers of soda fountains, printing offices, book stores, drug stores, apothecary shops, undertaker shops, public and private markets, bakeries, dairies, livery stables, railroads, whether steam or horse, hotels, boarding houses, steamboats and other vessels, warehouses for receiving and forwarding freights, restaurants, telegraph offices and theatres, or any place of amusement, unless intoxicating liquors are sold in the premises. Stores may be opened for the purpose of selling anything necessary in sickness and for burial purposes. "Hotels or boarding houses may sell wine for table use on Sundays. No alcoholic, vinous or malt liquors shall be given, traded or bartered or sold or delivered in any public place on Sundays, except when administered or prescribed by a practicing physician in the discharge of his professional duties. In which case the physicians administering the intoxicating liquors may charge therefor." LSA-R.S. 51:192. "Barber shops to be closed; penalty "No person shall operate on Sunday a barber shop, tonsorial parlor, or any other place of business where the trades of cutting and clipping hair, shaving or massaging is carried on. "Whoever violates this Section shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, or imprisoned for not less than thirty days nor more than sixty days, or both." LSA-R.S. 51:193.