Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1908-09-01
RICKEY MUST
NOW STAND TRIAL
JUDVE O'BRIEN OVERRULEs DE-
MURRER AND REQUIRES DE-
PENDANT TO PLEAD.


charged with embezzlement, over
ruling the demurrer and the banker
will now have to stand trial.
The indictment in this case charges
the defendant, T. B. Hickey, with the
crime of embezzlement, for having,
on October 81, 1907, received from
general deposit in the State Bank
and Trust company, of which bank he
was the president, knowing the said
bank to be insolvent at the time of
the receipt of said deposit.
The defendant has interposed
demurrer to this, indictment, upon
various statutory grounds, and by
this demurrer he challenges the legal
sufficiency of the Indictment. For the
purpose of testing the sufficiency of
the indictment on demurrer the allie
cations thereof must be considered as
true, and being true, the question
then presents itself, do the facts al
legged in this indictment constitute a
public offense for which the defend
ant can be tried under the laws of
Nevada?
| Counsel for defendant contends
that the banking act adopted by the
legislature of this state, in 1907, and
under which act this prosecution is
being conducted, is special legislation
and therefore unconstitutional be-
cause it applies to bankers only and
not to others who may commit the
prescribed acts. His argument is that
the act in question making crime
for bankers only to receive deposits
j after they are insolvent is class legis-
lation because it makes bankers alone
subject to punishment for acts that
would not be criminal or punishable
if committed by others.
While it may be said that the act
is, in a sense, class legislation, still ii
is not so in the invidious sense that
renders it obnoxious to the provisions
of the constitution. When law ap-
plies to all persons engaged in a GER
tain occupation or business and each
one is without distinction amenable
to it's provisions solely because he
pursues such occupation or business
it is then binding upon all persons Of
the community under similar circum.
stances Such legislation has uni
formly been upheld. Laws which
regulate criminal prosecutions and
proceedings or provide that acts done
by certain classes of persons shall b.
crimes are valid as applied to all of 6
class where the classification is baset
on reasonable distinction; and it il
for the legislature and not for the
courts to decide what is reasonable
stinction, the courts being able *
hold law unconstitutional onl,
; when the classification is based OF
purely arbitrary grounds Is Cyc
10E5.)
In discussing this character of leg
islation, Judge Cooley in his work OF
Constitutional Limitations, says, a
page 4S2: THE legislature may ais
: deem it desirable to prescribe pc
culiar rules for the several occupa
tions and to establish distinctions il
the rights, obligations, duties and ca
pacities of citizens. The business o
:. common carriers, for instance, and 0
tory regulations for the general bene
fit and it may be matter of publ
: policy to give ,laborers in one bust
I ness specific lien for their wage
:. when it would be impractical or i'm
nolitiC to do the same for person
engaged in some other employment;
II the laws be otherwise unobjec
tionable all that can be required i
7, these cases or locality to which the
apply; and they are then public i
character and of their propriety an
I police the legislature must judge
In Dent VS.. West Virginia. II
". S. 1874, the supreme court of tn
: United States says: Legislation
. not open to the charge of deprivin
. one of his rights without due process
\ of law if it be general in its opera
ton upon the subjects to which it re
q lates.
And in the State VS.. Loomis, 1
: Mo. 307, % s. w. $50, Mr.. Justic
It Black, speaking for the court says
" There is no doubt but many of on
i legislative enactments operate upo
classes of individuals only and the
J. are not invalid because REASONABLE
"a and not arbitrary. Thus, it is perfec
e ly competent to legislate concernin
,e married women, minors, insane PEE
sons, bankers, common carriers an
o the like"
nj A statute that made 1t a misd