Source: http://courts.mrsc.org/supreme/061wn2d/061wn2d0737.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 04:35:54+00:00

Document:
MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS - POLICE POWER - AUTHORITY TO EXERCISE. Const. Art. Il, § 11 establishes the right of a municipality to exercise police power by regulations, without specific legislative sanction for such exercise, so long as the subject matter is local and the regulations are reasonable and consistent with the general laws of the state.
 SAME - CONCURRENT EXERCISE OF POLICE POWER BY STATE AND MUNICIPALITY. A municipality may enact an ordinance prohibiting and punishing an act which also constitutes an offense under state law, if she municipal enactment does not conflict with the general laws of the state, and the state law does not show upon its face that it was intended to be exclusive.
 SAME - AUTOMOBILES - OPERATOR'S LICENSES - PRE-EMPTION BY STATE - EFFECT. While RCW 46.08.010 prevents a city from revoking or suspending an operator's state motor vehicle license without express authority from the state, it does not affect a city's right to prohibit the operation of a motor vehicle upon its streets without a state operators license.
* Reported in 380 P. (2d) 472.
 See Am. Jur., Municipal Corporations § 166.
 SAME - CONCURRENT EXERCISE OF POLICE POWER - OPERATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES - CONFLICT. There is no conflict between a municipal ordinance prohibiting the operation of a motor vehicle upon its streets by any person not having a valid state operator's license in his possession, and the state law imposing the same regulation (RCW 46.20.020), since both are prohibitory and there is no indication that the legislature intended the state law to be exclusive.
 CONSTITUTIONAL LAW - CONSTRUCTION - PERSONS ENTITLED TO RAISE CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS. A person may not urge the invalidity of an ordinance unless he is harmfully affected by the particular feature of the ordinance alleged to be an invalid exercise of the police power.
Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court for King County, No. 37088 Henry Clay Agnew, J., entered June 22, 1962. Affirmed.
Prosecution for a motor vehicle violation under a municipal ordinance. Defendant appeals from a conviction and sentence.
Regal & McDonell, by August F. Hahn, for appellant.
A. C. Van Soelen and James G. Leach, for respondent.
Appellant's license had expired; it had not been suspended, revoked, canceled, or surrendered into court.
He appeals from a judgment and sentence of the superior court requiring him to pay a fine of $5.
«1» City of Seattle Ordinance 80998, § 172-A.
have authority to pass them because the state ". . . has preempted the licensing field and the enforcement thereof . . ."
"This is a direct delegation of the police power as ample within its limits as that possessed by the legislature itself. It requires no legislative sanction for its exercise so long as the subject-matter is local, and the regulation reasonable and consistent with the general laws."
"It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a motor vehicle upon any of the public highways of this state unless such person shall have in his possession a current and valid vehicle operator's license issued on his own application as provided in this chapter. . . ."
«2» Washington State Constitution, Art. 11, § 11.
"Police and Sanitary Regulations. Any county, city, town or township may make and enforce within its limits all such local police, sanitary and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws."
By § 172 of the ordinance, the city has adopted the state's driver license requirements as its standard. In order to operate a motor vehicle lawfully upon city streets, a driver must be prepared to produce a state motor vehicle license to show he has met the minimum requirements imposed by state law.
 In numerous cases involving various types of offenses, we have recognized the right of a city to enact an ordinance prohibiting and punishing an act which also constitutes an offense under state law, if the enactment does not conflict with the general laws of the state, and the state law does not show upon its face that it was intended to be exclusive. Illustrations are collected in Bellingham v. Schampera, supra; we will not repeat them.
"The provisions of this title relating to . . . vehicle operator's license shall be exclusive and no political subdivision of the state of Washington shall require or issue any licenses or certificates for the same or a similar purpose, . . ."
We held that a city cannot, in the absence of express authority from the state, revoke or suspend an operator's state motor vehicle license because the state had pre-empted the right. This ruling, however, has no bearing on the problem under consideration.
 We do not find a conflict between the city ordinance and the state statute; both impose the same regulation; both are prohibitory; and there is no indication that the legislature intended the statute to be exclusive.
Finally, appellant contends that § 172-A of the ordinance (quoted in footnote 1, supra) is void because it authorizes a penalty greater than the penalty provided by state law.
In so far as appellant is concerned, this is a hypothetical claim resting upon an abstract assumption. His $5 fine is well within the ambit of the penalty provision of the city ordinances and RCW 9.92.030, fixing punishment for a misdemeanor.
ordinance unless he is harmfully affected by the particular feature of the ordinance alleged to be an invalid exercIse of the police power. A litigant who challenges the validity of an ordinance mast claim infringement of an interest peculiar and personal to himself, as distinguished from a cause of dissatisfaction with the general framework of the ordinance. State v. Lundquist, 60 Wn. (2d) 397, 401, 374 P. (2d) 246 (1962) and cases cited.
Appellant is not in a position to challenge § 172-A of the ordinance.
OTT, C. J., DONWORTH and FINLEY, JJ., and DAWSON, J. Pro Tem., concur.

References: § 11
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