Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-27
COURT REFUSES
TO ALLOW DANCE
HALL PETITION
WILBUR DENIES TEMPORARY
RESTRAINING ORDER
PLACES MUST CLOSE AT MID
NIGHT AND SUNDAYS
Until Permanent Injunction Case Is
AdIudicated Police Will Enforce
Ordinance Which Recently
Became Effective

Curtis ID. Wilbur. presiding judge OF
the superior court, refused yesterday to
grant a temporary restraining order
preventing the city from enforcing the
dance hall ordinance adopted by the
city council October ) last.
The application for an injunction was
made by Attorneys Haas, Garrett and
Dunnigan in behalf of F. II. Solomon,
VINO conducts the Grand Avenue audi
torlum, public dance hail at $40 South
Grand avenue.
In disposing of the petition for a
temporary restraining order to remain
until the suit for permanent injune-
tion can be tried, Judge Wilbur said:
II will not allow this proposition to
be settled on a demurrer to the COM
paint There is not enough doubt
about the validity of this ordinance to
warrant the court in issuing a restrain
ing order"
The suit will now take the usual
course of actions where no injunction
is asked for, and i'm the meanwhile the
provisions of the ordinance, which al
ready is effective, will be enforced by
the police.
solomon bases his request for an in
junction in a petition containing 2217
rames filed with the city clerk Novem-
ber 16, protesting against the passage
y
by the city council. He says the en-
forcement of the ordinance, especially
the Sunday closing provision, will re-
suit in a loss to him of $50 a day.
The appeal to the courts for an in
junction Is the last resort of the disap-
pointed dance hall men. Twice they
tried the referendum and twice their
plans to have the ordinance placed on
the ballot to be voted on by the people
were defeated.
The first referendum was secured
about a year ago, when the council
passed a dance hall ordinance which
did not contain conditions as drastic as
they are in the present ordinance. While
the first ordinance required dance halls
to close Sundays, they were not COM
PEELED to close at midnight on other
days, and certain moral features In the
last ordinance were not included in the
first.
Council Repeats Ordinance
When the dance hall men presented
their referendum petition the council
took advantage of the alternative al
lowed by the charter and repealed the
ordinance.
Less than two months ago the coun-
Gil took up the dance hall matter again
and passed another ordinance. The
dance hall men declared they did not
ell might enact, but did not want TO
close Sundays. f. II. Solomon of the
Grand Avenue auditorium. through his
attorney, Walter Haas, asked the coun-
ell to pass two ordinances. one con-
tanning the moral features and the 9TH
er an ordinance requiring Sunday clos
ing, so that If the dance hall men cir
culated a referendum petition it would
not hold up the operations of the moral
features. but merely the Sunday clos
ing. The council refused to accept this
suggestion and included all in one ordl-
nance.
A referendum petition was at once
circulated and filed last week. The
charter requires that referendum petit
tions must be filed thirty days after
the approval of the referred ordinance
by the mayor. By miscalculation the
dance hall men did not file their petit
tion until thirty-one days after the
mayor had approved the ordinance, and
as a result the petition was void.
Defendants in the suit filed yesterday
are Mayor Alexander, all the members
of the city council and Chief of Police
T. +. Dishman. No date has been set
for the hearing of the case.