Case Name: Ex Rel. EDWARDS v. WILSON
Court: Supreme Court of Nevada
Jurisdiction: Nevada
Decision Date: 1927-02-24
Citations: 50 Nev. 141
Docket Number: No. 2698
Parties: Ex Rel. EDWARDS v. WILSON
Judges: 
Reporter: Nevada Reports
Volume: 50
Pages: 141–144

Head Matter:
Ex Rel. EDWARDS v. WILSON
No. 2698
February 24, 1927.
253 P. 857.
H. W. Edivards, District Attorney, for Appellant;
James M. Lockhart, for Respondent:

Opinion:
OPINION
By the Court,-
Sanders, C. J.:
This appeal is taken from a judgment entered upon an order sustaining defendant's demurrer to a complaint filed under the provisions of an act entitled "An act to define the duties of county commissioners and district attorneys, relative to abating nuisances in the several counties of the State of Nevada and matters connected therewith," approved March 2, 1901 (Stats. 1901, c. 29), and found in section 1562, Rev. Laws, which reads as follows:
"Whenever, in any county of this state, the county commissioners of said county shall have knowledge, either by personal observation, complaint in writing, or other satisfactory evidence, that a nuisance exists within the limits of said county, as defined by section 3346 of the Compiled Laws of Nevada (infra, 5504) it shall be the duty of said board of county commissioners to take immediate action by entering and recording an order in the minutes of said board, directing the district attorney to notify the person or persons responsible for such nuisance to abate the same, and in case the said notice is not obeyed within five days from and after such service, the said district attorney is hereby directed and empowered to bring action in a court of justice to enforce or abate the same, together with the recovery of damages and costs. Said action shall be under the control of the board of county commissioners in like manner as other suits to which the county is a party, and all necessary expenses incurred in conducting said action shall be paid out of the general fund of said county as other claims are paid. Failure on the part of either county commissioners or district attorney to enforce the provisions of this act shall work forfeiture of office."
The complaint, in form, is a bill in equity to abate certain houses of ill fame as public nuisances; said houses being situated within 400 yards of a public school and the Sacred Heart Church in the town of Ely, White Pine County, Nevada, in violation of law. The complaint shows affirmatively that all conditions of the statute were complied with before the institution of the action. For present purposes it is unnecessary to discuss the extended allegations of the complaint, further than to say that they present a very strong case for abatement and injunction.
Whether the maintenance of a public nuisance is or is not punishable in the law courts.as a crime is an immaterial incident so far as the preventive jurisdiction of equity is concerned, for equity ignores its criminality, and visits upon the offender no punishment as for a crime. State v. Ellis, 201 Ala. 295, 78 So. 71, L. R. A. 1918d, 816, Ann. note 821.
The main point presented by the demurrer is that the State of Nevada is not a proper party plaintiff, and that the action was improperly brought in the name of the State of Nevada on the relation of the district attorney of White Pine County. The court sustained the demurrer, and we are in accord with its ruling.
The statute makes it clear that the county is the real party in interest ip an action brought under its provisions to abate public nuisances existing within the limits of said county; that such action is under the control of the board of county commissioners in like manner as other suits to which the county is a party; that all necessary expenses incurred in conducting the action are payable out of the general fund; that the district attorney derives his authority to bring the action solely from the statute; and that failure to enforce its provisions works 'forfeiture of office.
The demurrer was properly sustained. Judgment affirmed.