Case Name: Joseph Bernstein v. The People of the State of Illinois
Court: Illinois Appellate Court
Jurisdiction: Illinois
Decision Date: 1897-05-24
Citations: 70 Ill. App. 175
Docket Number: 
Parties: Joseph Bernstein v. The People of the State of Illinois.
Judges: 
Reporter: Illinois Appellate Court Reports
Volume: 70
Pages: 175–176

Head Matter:
Joseph Bernstein v. The People of the State of Illinois.
1. Statutes—Jurisdiction of the Appellate Court in Cases Involving the Validity of.—The Appellate Court has no jurisdiction of cases involving the validity' of a statute.
Prosecution, for selling goods with false label. Error to the Criminal Court of Cook County; the Hon. John Gibbons, Judge, presiding.
Heard in this court at the March term, 1897.
Writ dismissed.
Opinion filed May 24, 1897.
Elijah H. Zoline, attorney for plaintiff in error; Leon Zolotkoff and Hugo Pam, of counsel.
W. F. Struckman, attorney for defendant in error; Clifford & More, of counsel.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Gary
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The plaintiff in error was prosecuted under section 2 of the act of 1891, amended in 1895 (Hurd's Statutes of 1895, page 1555), for selling " goods contained in a box, to which said box was attached an imitation of the label of the Cigar Makers' International Union of America, an Association of Workingmen."
He was convicted and fined one hundred dollars.
In the Criminal Court, by motion to dismiss, to the denial of which the plaintiff in error excepted, he challenged the validity—constitutionality—of section 12 of the act under which the prosecution was commenced before a justice of the peace.
By motions of a new trial and in arrest of judgment, not specifying the grounds, the same question was raised. O. O. & F. R. V. R. R. v. McMath, 91 Ill. 104.
Overruling those motions is assigned as error.
How his brief argues the question for our consideration. He has thereby ousted this court of jurisdiction of this writ of error, as' cases involving the validity of a statute are excepted from the jurisdiction of the Appellate Courts. Sec. 8 of Act of 1877, creating Appellate Courts. Ames v. Ames, 44 Ill. App. 576; 148 Ill. 321.
A freehold and the validity of a statute are on the same plane as to jurisdiction.
The writ of error is dismissed.