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Strauss v. The Mayor and Council of Waycross

Supreme Court of Georgia1895-11-15
97 Ga. 475

Summary

Holding. The city of Waycross lacked authority to prosecute Strauss for an offense that the state had made indictable under state criminal law, and the judgment is reversed.

Strauss was convicted in municipal court in Waycross for soliciting orders to sell intoxicating liquors in violation of a city ordinance. Prior to December 1893, such conduct was not a crime under Georgia state law, but a state statute passed that month made it a misdemeanor. The question was whether the city could still prosecute the offense under its ordinance after the state criminalized the identical conduct.

The court held that municipalities lack authority to punish acts that are indictable under state criminal law, with limited exceptions for offenses having a dual character—affecting both state law and local peace. The offense here was not dual in nature; it was the same act punished identically by both the city and state. Although Waycross had adopted its ordinance before the state statute existed and had the right to do so at that time, the subsequent state legislation divested the city of jurisdiction. Allowing both sovereigns to prosecute would violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, so state authority must prevail over municipal authority in such cases.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether municipalities may punish conduct that is also indictable under state criminal law
  • Conflict between municipal ordinance and subsequently enacted state statute on the same conduct
  • Double jeopardy implications of dual prosecution by state and municipal authorities

Procedural posture

Strauss was convicted by the Mayor and Council of Waycross and appealed, challenging the city's jurisdiction to prosecute the offense.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Lumpkin, Justice.

Tbe plaintiff in error was tried and convicted by tbe Mayor and Council of Waycross upon tbe charge of “selling, taking or receiving orders for tbe sale of, intoxicating drinks, or spirituous or malt liquors, or fermented or mixed intoxicating drinks, contrary to ordinance,” on January 27 th, 1894.

Prior to the passage of the act of December 18, 1893 (Acts of 1893, p. 115), soliciting orders for the sale of spirituous, malt, or other intoxicating liquors, in any “prohibition” county in this State was not indictable under any criminal statute of Georgia, but was, for the first time, made a State offense by the passage of that act. The offense for which the plaintiff in error was convicted by the municipal court of Waycross was exactly the thing which the act of 1893 made a misdemeanor. Except in special instances (like that referred to in the case of Hood et al. v. Von Glahn, 88 Ga. 405), it is well settled in this State that municijoal corporations have no authority to inflict punishment for acts indictable under the criminal laws of this State. The municipal authorities of Waycross — the charter of which was granted since the constitution of 1877— have no such power. It is undoubtedly true that sometimes an act in its nature constitutes two separate and distinct offenses, one against the laws of the State and the other against the ordinances of the municipality; and for the latter, the municipal government may inflict punishment. The offense with which we are dealing in the present case was not, however, one having such a dual character. The particular act forbidden by the city ordinance and the statute of 1893 has in it no “ingredient or concomitant” offense to the peace and good order of the city for which it can separately punish, leaving the State to deal with the main accusation.

It was insisted, however, that inasmuch as the municipality adopted the ordinance in question prior to any State legislation on the subject, and at a time when it had an undoubted right so to do, the subsequent passage of the act of 1893 did not divest the city of its jurisdiction over offenses of this character. But this contention is not sound. No citizen can be twice tried and punished for the same offense. The legislature has declared that the offense committed by the plaintiff in error shall be indictable and punishable in the State courts. The General Assembly surely had the authority to pass this act; and if the City of "Waycross is to retain its jurisdiction over the offense, the State court, in any given instance, would lose its jurisdiction over the offender if he had already been tried in the municipal court, or else he would be subjected to two trials for the same offense, which would be clearly unconstitutional. It follows that either the State of Georgia or the City of Way cross must give up its right to try cases of this class; and, in our humble judgment, the City must yield to the State’s superior authority in the premises.

Judgment reversed.