In re Franklin Film Manufacturing Corp.

Citations

• 253 Pa. 422
• 98 A. 623
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 862

Syllabus

<p>fllotion pictures — Censorship—State Board of Censors — Abuse of 'discretion — Appeal to Common Pleas — Power of Common Pleas— Practice, Supreme Court.</p> <p>1. Under the Act of May 15, 1915, P. L. 534, Sec. 26, creating a State Board of Censors of motion pictures, “With a right of appeal from the decision of the board to the Court of Common Pleas of the proper county,” the decision of the board of censors can be reversed by the Common Pleas only where there is a finding that the censors were guilty of an abuse of discretion.</p> <p>2. On an appeal from the decree of the Court of Common Pleas reversing the decision of the State Board of Censors of motion pictures the Supreme Court will look at the opinion as well as the action of the lower court to see the basis on which it acted.</p> <p>3. While the Court of Common Pleas may view eliminated pictures on an appeal from the State Board of Censors when necessary in order to properly comprehend the matter before them, such inspection should never be resorted to unless in the court’s opinion the ordinary methods of proof are inadequate.</p> <p>4. Where a Court of Common Pleas on the hearing of an appeal from the State Board of Censors of motion pictures found the action of the board to be “minute and far fetched” and “without merit,” without finding the censorg guilty of arbitrary or oppressive abuse of discretion, the order of the court reversing the decision of the censors that certain portions of a film be eliminated, was reversed.</p> <p>5. Every order for an elimination made by the Board of Censors necessarily comprehends a finding that tbe picture in question is “sacrilegious, obscene, indecent or immoral,” and, as sucb, tends to “debase or corrupt morals”; and tbe Oourt of Common Pleas, under tbe Act of 1915, bas ample power to protect property rights and to see that tbe public is not denied proper entertainment, where conYineed, after bearing, that tbe censors have abused their discretion.</p>