State ex rel. Jackson v. Bowden

Citations

• 80 Kan. 49
• 101 P. 654
• 1909 Kan. LEXIS 9

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Intoxicating Liquors — Duty of Officers to Notify County Attorney of Illegal Traffic. To comply with section 2462 of the General Statutes of 1901, requiring the marshal and other police officers of a city having notice or knowledge of any violation of the prohibitory liquor law to notify the county attorney of the fact of such violation and to furnish him the names of the witnesses by whom such fact can be proved, it is not sufficient that the officer should merely talk occasionally with the county attorney in a general way about police court, liquor prosecutions. The notification should be given in such a manner that the county attorney may know the communication is official, and in' such terms that he will be put in possession of the specific information it is designed to convey.</p> <p>2. - Same. The fact that violations of which police officers: have knowledge are committed by men and women, white and colored, in their homes and at temporary places, where there are no bars and where liquor selling is not carried on as a business, so that they merit the epithet of “migratory,” does not excuse failure to notify the county attorney.</p> <p>3. - Same. The fact that the county attorney may be of the opinion that such cases are not of sufficient importance to. warrant state prosecutions does not excuse failure to notify him of them.</p> <p>4. - Same. Notifying the county attorney of violations of the law is just like any other regular police business. The purpose is the efficient suppression and certain punishment of' crime, and to accomplish this purpose the county attorney must be notified as soon as the due and orderly discharge of police duty will permit.</p> <p>5. Quo Warranto — Office and Officers — Judicial Discretion. The court has some discretion in granting and refusing relief in actions of quo warranto, which it may exercise according to the peculiar facts of individual cases.</p>