St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-30
APPEALING LIQUOR CASES.
Points on Which the City Ordi-
nance May Be Declared Illegal.


The hotel cases that were tried in the
municipal court Saturday Will be car
ried to the supreme court. Marcus 2.
Hayne, the attorney who is handling
the cases tor MessrS. O'Brien and " God,
of theWest and the Nicollet respectively,
thinks he has good case to appeal.
He will attempt to prove that the liquor
ordinance under which the cases were
brought is illegal. An attempt will be
made to knock out the ordinance that
may prove more effective than Aid.
Rand'S amendments.
The liquor ordinances of the CITY are.
of course, based upon the authority con
ferred upon the city council by the
charter. The council has no authority
to pass any sort of an ordinance except
the authority delegated to it by the
state legislature, through the charter
The point will be raised that the CITY
council has no right to pass such an
ordinance as the one that now does serv-
ice on the city statute books. The
charter provides that the city may pass
an ordinance prohibiting the selling of
liquor Sunday. The cases did not come
up on that ground. The complaints
charged the men arrested with keep
ing open the bars of the hotels Sun
day. The city charter does not
say, it is claimed, that the council shall
have the power to pass an ordinance
prohibiting the opening of places where
Intoxicating liquors are sold, whether
liquor is sold or not. Moreover it will
be shown. it is said, that Mr.. O'Brien
did not know that the bar was open.
On that ground his arrest and convic-
ton will be argued to have been illegal.
This further point will be made:
That the ordinance in question is lille
gal because it cOnferS upon the mu-
nicipal court greater powers than have
been delegated to that court. The mu-
nicipal courts powers, IS defined by
the creative act, it is said, extend only
to the imposition of fine of 500 or i'm
prisonment for ninety days. or both.
The ordinances of the city under which
these cases are all tried give
to the municipal court the additional
power of revokng licenses. 1t will be
urged that the ordinance, by giving to
the court greater powers than have
been accorded it by the state legisla-
ture. renders itself imperative.
A third point will be made on the fact
that the prisoners were not accorded a
jury trial. A trial by jury was de-
manded but was refueed. This point
has never been tested, and it is one that
good many people would like to see
settled. There have been many cases
in which jury trial has been demanded
and refused. 1t should be decided, once
and for all, the lawyers think, whether
man has a right to jury trial or
not. AS practice goes now in
the municipal court, the right of
trial by jury rests in the discretion Of
the judge. Municipal court jurors are
summoned every month, and they fire.
quently try criminal cases, but there
seems to be no established rule govern
ing this point.
The decision to appeal these cases
will be hailed with good deal of salts
faction by more than the parties directly
interested. All of the legal points cited
here are important, and there is a de-
mand for the Interpretation of the law
upon them by the highest authority in
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