Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-10-19
FISH LAW INVALID.
Supreme Court Says the Assembly
Never Acted on the Amend
ed Bill.

Madison, Wis, Oct. 13.-[Special.]-
The Supreme court has decided that the
state fish law is invalid.
This decision was handed down this
morning in the case Of the Oshkosh fish
ernen and holds the law invalid for the
reason that it was never properly passed
by the Legislature.
The case was certified to the Supreme
court by the county court of WlnneDago
county for the determination OF certain
questions of law. The defendant was
tried in the lower court on the charge
of violating the provisions of subdivision
3, section %, of the act, which reads
as follows: 1T is unlawful and prollib-
tied to catch fish of any variety IN
any of the inland waters Of this
state with any other device than hook
and line" The defendant was found
guilty. The principal contention OF the
defendant before the Supreme court was
that the act in question was never legal
~ passed by the Legislature and there
fore is of no force and effect. 1t was
maintained by the defendants attorneys
that the Senate passed one bill and the
Assembly another, and that the
amendments to the bill made BY
conference committee of both
houses were not legally passed. and
it was further claimed that even if the
two houses of the Legislature could be
found to have passed the same bill that
the governor in reality signed still an
other. Beyond all this it was claimed
that the bill is one appropriating money
and that section g. article 8, of the state
constitution requires all such bills to- be
passed by an aye and nay vote and that
the vote so taken shall appear on the
journal, and it was maintained by the
attorneys for defendant that the journal
of neither house shows the bill to have
maintained that there is nothing in either
journal to show that three-ffths of the
members were present when action was
taken on the. bill, which is required by
the same section of the constitution of
the state. To still further complicate
matters it is found that in the printed
volume of the session laws for 1895 are
two laws, each purporting to be chapter
221, one beginning on page 367 and the
other on page 397. The case was argued
before the Supreme court by g. u. Whe-
Ian, special counsel for the state fish and
Mylrea, Assistant Attorney General
John L. Erdall and III. B. Harshaw Of
counsel; and for the defendant by Hume,
Oellerich & Jackson.
The court in its decision says the rec
ord does not show that the Legislature
legally passed any law It does not con-
slider the question whether yea and nay
vote was essential upon the final passage
of the bill. '"The difficulty in this case"
the opinion says, ''lies deeper and con-
sists in the fact that the Assembly never
took any action on the bill after it passed
with numerous amendments, which the
Senate refused to concur in" The court
then follows the course of the bill
through the Legislature and says: 1T
seems very probable that a mistake was
made and that 25SS was the bill which
was acted on. But laws cannot rest on
probabilities, even though they be ex-
treme probabilities" The court says fur
Their that conceding that bill 258S passed
both houses in legal form with the
amendments of the conference commit
tee, still it was never approved by the
governor as it was passed. In cOnclu-
sion the court says: 1--WE have been de-
sirous of upholding this law if it could
be done. We are well aware that it has
been enforced for more than a year and
that very probably serious liabilities
have been incurred by such enforce
ments. For these reasons, if for no 9TH
er, we have given the case the most
careful and diligent consideration in our
power, but we have been unable to reach
any other conclusion from that which
we have expressed
The opinion is written by Justice
Winslow and is approved by the entire
court.
Fishermen who figure that the amend
ment of this law leaves them without re-
striction will be disappointed. The de-
cision being that the Legislature of 1895
passed no fish law The previous law
will remain in full force.