State ex rel. Case v. Howell

Citations

• 85 Wash. 294
• 147 P. 1159
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1275

Syllabus

<p>Statutes — Referendum— Time oe Taking Effect — Emekgency. The legislative enactment (Laws 1915, p. 227) for the regulation of motor propelled vehicles along streets and highways ■ as common carriers of passengers hy requiring the persons so operating them to take out permits and execute surety bonds to pay all damages sustained by persons injured in the conduct of the business of transporting passengers, and by providing for civil actions to recover against the carrier and his bondsman for the negligence of the carrier, is an attempt at regulation, even if not wholly adequate; and if a state of facts can reasonably be presumed to exist 'Which would justify the legislation, courts must presume that the law was passed for that reason as an exercise of police power; and, its necessity being doubtful, the question of emergency will be treated as a legislative question, and the doubt resolved in favor of the declaration of emergency made by the legislative body.</p> <p>Same. The declaration of immediate emergency existing at the date of the enactment of a law, followed by the declaration that it shall take effect thirty days thereafter, is not such a contradiction in terms as to make invalid the emergency provisions; since laws take effect immediately, although their operation may be deferred for a time, and the intent of the law was merely to give those affected a reasonable period of time in which to adjust themselves to the changed condition effected by the law.</p> <p>Same. The word “immediate,” as used in art. 2, § 1, subd. b, of the state constitution excepting from the right of referendum emergency legislation in matters of the “preservation of public peace, health or safety,” does not import the exclusion of any interval of time, but there is a certain latitude to be given the significance of the word, and it may mean “close to” the time of enacting the law, and that it is within the power of the legislature to cause it to take effect at a future date with ref