Steenken v. State

Citations

• 88 Md. 708
• 42 A. 212
• 1898 Md. LEXIS 241

Syllabus

<p>Statute Valid in Part and Void in Part— Title of Statute— Licenses to Stevedores.</p> <p>A statute may be valid in part and void in part even when the two parts are contained in the same section, provided the valid part is independent of, and severable from, that which is void.</p> <p>The title of the Act of 1898, ch. 505, was “ An Act to provide for licenses to stevedores.” In the body of the Act it was provided that every master stevedore in Baltimore City should take out a license, paying therefor a certain sum and that he should also file a bond. A penalty was provided for failure either to take out a license or to file a bond. Defendant was indicted for acting as a master stevedore without having been licensed and .in another count for failure to give a bond. It was conceded that the Act was void so far as the provision relating to the bond is concerned, because in violation of the Constitution, Art. 3, sec. 29, which declares that the subject of every law shall be described in its title. Held, that the provisions of the Act relating to licenses are independent of those relating to the bond; that the former are valid although the latter are void, and that consequently a demurrer to the count in the indictment charging the defendant with acting as a master stevedore without having obtained a license was properly overruled.</p>