City of Crowley v. Ellsworth

Citations

• 114 La. 308
• 38 So. 199
• 69 L.R.A. 276
• 1905 La. LEXIS 459

Syllabus

<p>APPEAL — REVIEW — CONSTITUTIONAL LAW— ORDINANCE — VALIDITY — DISCRIMINATION — MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS — REGULATION OF INFLAMMABLE MATERIALS — STORAGE — DUE PROCESS OF LAW.</p> <p>1. On an appeal coming to this court solely under the grant of jurisdiction to this court over suits involving the constitutionality or legality of a fine or penalty imposed by a municipal corporation, the question of whether the facts were sufficient to justify the conviction of the appellant cannot be considered.</p> <p>2. An ordinance is not informal or illegal because the cause or reasons of its enactment are not given, nor because it punishes as a nuisance what neither by it nor by another ordinance is expressly declared to be such.</p> <p>3. An ordinance which applies alike to all persons, firms, or corporations engaged in the business legislated against is not discriminatory.</p> <p>4. Authority to a municipal corporation to regulate the storage of combustible and inflammable materials includes authority to prohibit the storage of refined and other explosive oils within the corporate limits. And an ordinance so providing is not unreasonable.</p> <p>5. A special ordinance granting to a particular person permission to store refined oils within the corporate limits of a town is repealed by a subsequent general ordinance, applicable to all persons alike, making such storage of oils a criminal offense.</p> <p>6. Though an ordinance prohibiting the storage of explosive oils in large quantities within the corporate limits happens to have the effect of putting an end to a business, and of rendering valueless certain structures used in connection with the business, its enforcement will not constitute a depriving of property without due process of law, when the circumstances justified its adoption as a police regulation.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the Court.)</p>