Court Opinion

ID: 9769242
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:41:17.308531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:27.025665
License: Public Domain

DALTON, Judge
(dissenting).
It is with great regret that I find it necessary to dissent from the conclusions reached i'n the majority opinion in this case, because I recognize that the sole purpose of the ordinance in question is to prevent discrimination between citizens on account of race or color, but if the ordinance, regardless of its meritorious purpose, has been enacted in such a manner that its provisions are so limited in its application as to make it a limited, local, or special law where a general law could have been made applicable, the ordinance is void under Art. Ill, Section 40(30), of the Constitution of Missouri 1945, and it is the duty of this court to apply that provision of the Constitution, regardless of the good faith of the sponsors of the enactment, or the meritorious purpose of the ordinance.
The constitutional provision provides: “The general assembly shall not pass cmy local or special law * * * (30) where a general law can be made applicable, and whether a general law could have been made applicable is a judicial question to be judicially determined without regard to any legislative assertion on the subject.” (Italics ours.) This constitutional provision also applies to municipal corporations under home rule charters, such as Kansas City, Missouri, since Art. VI, Section 19 of the Constitution of Missouri provides that such charters shall be “consistent with and subject to the constitution and laws of the state.” The ordinance in question must comply with the mentioned constitutional provision. McKaig v. Kansas City, 363 Mo. 1033, 256 S.W.2d 815, 816; Laclede Power & Light Co. v. City of St. Louis, 353 Mo. *88767, 182 S.W.2d 70, 72(1); City of Springfield v. Smith, 322 Mo. 1129, 19 S.W.2d 1, 3(1) ; Ex parte Lerner, 281 Mo. 18, 218 S.W. 331, 333; City of St. Louis v. Atlantic Quarry & Construction Co., 244 Mo. 479, 488, 148 S.W. 948.
In the last cited case the court said: “It is illogical to suppose that, in matters affecting the security of the citizen with respect to his person and property, the municipal corporation, in its legislative capacity, should not be subject to the same restrictions as the Legislature from which it derives its powers. This question also presented itself to the people in their capacity of makers of the organic law, so that, in authorizing the charter which we are now considering,’ they provided * * * that it ‘shall be in harmony with and subject to the Constitution and laws of the state.’ The Constitution is largely devoted to the restriction of the legislative power in the granting of special privileges, and in the enactment of special and arbitrary legislation affecting the rights of the people, and we cannot harmonize with these restrictions an unlimited power to grant special privileges, and by special legislative act to discriminate between individuals of a municipality with respect to the use of their property and the conduct of their business.”
We fully agree with the majority opinion insofar as it holds that: “Businesses, trades, occupations and vocations carried on within a municipal corporation are subject to reasonable regulation by the municipal corporation under its police power which may be delegated to the municipal corporation in express terms or by implication.”
We further fully recognize the portions of the Charter of Kansas City, quoted in the opinion, to wit: Article 1, Sec. 1, subd. 29; Article 1, Sec. 1, subd. 57; Article 1, sec. 1, subd. 61 and Article 1, Sec. 3. We also agree with certain other portions of the opinion, to wit: “ * * * Kansas City has the general power to define, prohibit and regulate acts, practices and conduct of businesses which are detrimental to the health, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of its inhabitants as well as the specific power to license and regulate restaurants. The term ‘regulate’ as used in a delegation of municipal powers is one of broad import; it means generally to prescribe the manner in which a thing licensed may be conducted. * * * A grant of power to regulate a business or vocation carries with it the authority on the part of the city to exercise the police power impliedly and necessarily vested in it in order to accomplish the municipal function delegated * * and a “municipal ordinance, designed to prevent discrimination by reason of race or color in restaurants, bears a substantial and reasonable relation to the specific grant of power to regulate restaurants and to the health, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants, of the city and is fairly referable to the police power of the municipal corporation” ; and further: “ ‘Police power is the exercise of the sovereign right of a government to promote order, safety, health, morals, and the general welfare of society, within constitutional limits.’ The police power is an essential attribute of government without which constitutional guaranties of personal and property rights would be ineffective and meaningless. In their very nature, neither the police power nor constitutional limitations can be absolute; they are necessarily relative and dependent in the complexities of modern life.”
Nor do we find the ordinance in question to be “an arbitrary or unreasonable exercise of the police power of the city; hence the ordinance is not unconstitutional as being in violation of the plaintiffs’ asserted rights under Art. I, Sections 2 and 10 of the Missouri Constitution to choose and contract discriminately with their customers on the basis of race and color.” Our objection to the opinion is on the sole ground that the ordinance violates the mentioned specific constitutional provision.
The majority opinion quotes from Article 1, Sec. 1, subd. 57 of the Charter of *888Kansas City, which authorizes the city “ * * * to license, tax and regulate any and every person, firm, association, or corporation engaged in the occupation, business, trade, pursuit, profession, calling, employment, vocation, avocation or practice of keeping, maintaining, ■conducting, managing, directing, operating, overseeing or superintending any * * * hotel * * * or * * * restaurant * * However, subd. 57 names dozens of other occupations, businesses, trades, etcetra, as to which the city possesses the same powers, such as: “Any academy, * * * airdrome, * * * amusement, amusement park, * * * apartment house, * * * athletic exhibition or contest, * * * ball alley, barbecue stand, barber shop, * * * bath house, * * * beer house, beauty parlor, * * * billiard parlor, boarding house, * * * boxing contest, * * * cattle show, college, * * * concert, * * * correspondence schools or agency, * * * dance house, dancing school or hall, * * * dog show, dramatic school, * * * dram shop, educational institute, * * * hai.r-dressing establishment, * * moving-picture exhibition, * * * nursery, * * * office building, * * * passenger station, * * * piano studio, pin alley, * * * pool room, * * * public garage, * * * saloon, * * * shooting gallery, shooting rack, show, skating rink, * * * sparring exhibition, * * * theatre, * * * theatrical or other exhibition; tippling house, * * * trade school or college, * * * turkish bath, * * * wine or beer garden, ⅛ * *" and many other businesses, trades and professions.
The same subdivision of Section 1, Article 1 further authorizes the city to license, tax and regulate other trades, businesses and callings, as follows: “ * * * and to license, tax and regulate all occupations, businesses, trades, professions, callings, employments, vocations, avocations or pursuits, and other institutions, establishments, articles, utilities and commodities; and things not heretofore enumerated of whatsoever name or character, alike or unlike, * * * >J
From the foregoing list of named and unnamed businesses, the city has selected hotels, motels and restaurants and makes it unlawful for them to discriminate on account of race or color, but discrimination as to race or color is not prohibited in any other trade, business or calling. In fact, on the face of the ordinance itself it appears that by Section 39.261 subd. (c) discrimination on account of race or color is prohibited in coffee shops, soda fountains, soft-drink and ice-cream parlors, but not in “taverns or bars.” This is an arbitrary and unreasonable discrimination in view of the purpose of the ordinance.
From the face of the ordinance it appears that, considering the purpose of the ordinance and the evils sought to be corrected thereby, the city has arbitrarily and unreasonably selected hotels, motels and restaurants from the entire list of businesses, etcetra, over which it has the same control and has enacted a special and local law where a general could have been made applicable. It clearly appears that the purpose of this ordinance is not to promote, regulate or control the hotel, motel or restaurant businesses as such, or in any respect except with reference to race or color discriminations. The ordinance is not for the protection or advancement of the named businesses and the evils sought to be corrected by the ordinance are not limited or special to hotels, motels and restaurants. It is common knowledge that many other businesses unfairly discriminate on account of race or color. A city ordinance whose sole purpose is to prevent discrimination on account of race or color cannot be limited to one local or special field where a general law could be made applicable. All citizens, regardless of race or color, are entitled to equal treatment in all business establishments open to the public and all are entitled to the benefits enjoyed by other members of the public generally. Any local, special or limited ordinance which purports to pro-*889Mbit discrimination on account of race or color as to “accommodations, advantages, facilities or services” in one small field is unconstitutional and void.
In McKaig v. Kansas City, supra, 256 S.W.2d 815, 817(7), this court held that a city ordinance prohibiting automobile dealers from keeping their places of business open on Sundays and six national holidays was unconstitutional as a “special law” excluding from its operation all persons engaged in businesses of selling all other commodities and merchandise, except automobiles, and without any reasonable basis for such distinction.
After pointing out that “the laws of this state that prohibit work on Sunday * * are based upon a sound public policy which recognizes that rest one day in seven is for the general' good of mankind,” the court further said: “The ordinance before us excludes all persons engaged in the business of selling all commodities and all merchandise except automobiles. In other words, it excludes all persons engaged in the business of selling television sets, radios, phonographs, refrigerators, washing machines, electric and gas ranges and heaters, trailers, golf equipment, furniture, hardware, clothing and many other articles. * * * There is no reasonable basis for singling out those people who are engaged in the business of selling automobiles and excluding those people who sell the above enumerated articles of merchandise who are permitted to keep open their places of business on Sundays and the six named holidays.’1 (Italics ours.) (256 S.W.2d 815, S17(7).)
The ordinance in question now before us proceeds on exactly the same basis as the ordinance in the McKaig case, since the city council has selected hotels, motels and restaurants for the application of an ordinance making it illegal for them to discriminate against members of the public on account of race or color, while excluding all other businesses, professions or callings where such discriminations are made. “The test of a special law is the appropriateness of its provisions to the objects that it excludes. It is not, therefore, what a law includes, that makes it special, but what it excludes.” (Italics ours.) Reals v. Courson, 349 Mo. 1193, 164 S.W.2d 306, 307; McKaig v. Kansas City, supra, 815, 817(5). Considering the subject matter of the ordinance and the evils sought to be corrected thereby, a general ordinance could have been made applicable and it was clearly unreasonable and arbitrary to exclude all other businesses where discrimina-tions on account of race or color is the common practice.
In City of Springfield v. Smith, supra, 19 S.W.2d 1, a city ordinance prohibited on Sunday only the keeping “open of any theatre, playhouse, or any other place where theatrical performances, vaudeville shows or moving picture exhibitions are given or conducted,” or conducting or taking part in any such performance, show or exhibition. This court pointed out that omitted from the ordinance was any prohibition against “the keeping open and operation of such public amusement businesses as concerts, circuses, amusement businesses as concerts, circuses, amusement parks, public halls, sparring exhibitions, wrestling exhibitions, and like public amusement businesses * * The court said: “Each and all of the public amusement businesses above enumerated, but omitted from the operation of the ordinance, affect the permissible subject-matter of this legislation in very much the same way. The keeping open and operation of each requires similar labor activities, each furnishes to the public for a consideration an opportunity for excitement and entertainment, and each is sufficiently attractive to induce large portions of the public to attend, and each is fairly and reasonably comparable with theaters, vaudeville shows, and moving picture exhibitions in their possibilities of disturbing a day of rest. We find no reason which would justify the regulation of one in this regard which will also not apply with *890equal force to the others. They all appear to be similarly situated with reference to the permissible subject-matter sought to be dealt with by the ordinance.” (Italics ours.)
The court further said: “We are not here so much concerned with determining how many activities which threaten to disturb the subject-matter sought to be protected could or might be included in the one piece of legislation, but our problem of instant concern is whether some have been omitted from the ordinance now involved which it would be clearly and unreasonable and arbitrary to omit.” (Italics ours.) (19 S.W.2d 1, 4, 5.)
In Ex parte Lerner, supra, 218 S.W. 331, 333, in a case where a city ordinance prohibited solicitation of all prospective purchasers while such purchasers were on the street or sidewalk in front of the place of business of a competitor of the soliciting person, but which ordinance did not prohibit the general personal solicitation of persons for business purposes upon the streets and sidewalks was held void as being special in its terms and local in its application. The court said: “Instead of prohibiting the general personal solicitation of persons for business purposes upon the streets and sidewalks of the city, its application is limited to the prohibition of such solicitations to persons in like lines of trade in front of the store or place of business of a competitor. Such a classification is neither general in its terms as to the persons to whom it is intended to apply, or to the streets the use of which is attempted to be regulated. Certainly, if it be an ill requiring legislative supervision to regulate the solicitation of business upon the streets and highways within the limits prescribed in the ordinance, then it must follow that it is equally an ill to solicit business elsewhere upon any of the thoroughfares of commercial activity in the city. The ordinance therefore cannot be otherwise construed than as special in its terms and local in its application, contravening the constitutional provision that ‘where a general law can be made applicable, no local or special law shall be enacted’, * * * which salutary rule regulating legislation we have shown applies with equal force to an ordinance as well as a state law.”
Since I consider the ordinance in question to be void in view of Art. Ill, Section 40(30) Constitution of Missouri, I would affirm the judgment.