Case Name: The State of Louisiana and Police Jury of the Parish of Jefferson vs. W. J. Isabel
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1888-03
Citations: 40 La. Ann. 340
Docket Number: No. 10,073
Parties: The State of Louisiana and Police Jury of the Parish of Jefferson vs. W. J. Isabel.
Judges: 
Reporter: Louisiana Annual Reports
Volume: 40
Pages: 340–344

Head Matter:
No. 10,073.
The State of Louisiana and Police Jury of the Parish of Jefferson vs. W. J. Isabel.
"When a party, charged with violating a parish ordinance inflicting a fine for certain prohibited acts, appears and flies a plea or demurrer admitting the act, but setting up the* nullity of the ordinance, the case involves a contestation ns to constitutionality or legality of a flue or penalty imposed, and is appealable to this Court.
The State and police jury having both joined in the appeal, and the defendant being duly cited, all proper parties are certainly before us, and even if the joinder of appellants was unnecessary, it obviates all ground of objection to absence of parties which is urged in the motion.
Because a retailer of spirituous liquors ha* paid his license he does not become, on that account, exempt from the operation and effect of a police regulation, thereafter ordained by the police jury, in so far as his subsequent act, in violation thereof is concerned.
An ordinance passed and promulgated, subsequent to the issuance of a license to a retailer of spirituous liquors, denouncing a penalty of fine against its violation, by such person as shall keep his saloon open after 10 o’clock p. m., is not amenable to the charge of being an ex post facto, or retroactive law, unless the act sought to be punished was committed antecedent lo its passage.
APPEAL from tlie First Justice’s Court for the Parish of Jefferson. Ohapman, J.
G. Tjéohe, District Attorney, anil 11. N. Gautier for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
W. Tj. Thompson ior Defendant and Appellee.

Opinion:
Motion to Dismiss
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Fenner, J.
The Police Jury of the Parish of Jefferson passed an ordinance forbidding the keeping open of taverns, coffee-houses and retail liquor shops after 10 o'clock at night or earlier than 4 o'clock in the morning, and inflicting as a penalty for its violation a fine of twenty dollars for each offense.
Defendant, prosecuted for such a violation, filed a written plea in which he expressly admits the facts charged, but sets up that the ordinance was null and void, because he had paid licenses to the State and parish, and the ordinance passed after such payment was ex post facto. The justice sustained the plea or demurrer, from -which judgment the appeal is taken.
The motion to dismiss is based on two grounds, viz.:
1st. That the case is unappealable:
This is untenable. It is apparent from the above statement that the -case involves a contestation as to the constitutionality or'legality of a fine or penalty imposed by a municipal corporation. This authorizes an appeal to this Court under Art. 81 of the Constitution.
2nd. That the proper persons are not made parties to the appeal.
Both the State and the police jury are parties appellant, and the defendant was duly cited as appellee, What other party is required we -cannot conceive.
It may have been unnecessary for both the State and police jury to join in the appeal, bqt certainly their joinder obviates all possible defect of parties.
The motion to dismiss is, therefore, denied.