Manford v. Singh

BURNETT, J.

The appeal is on the judgment-roll and involves the construction of “An act providing for the payment of wages,” approved May 1, 1911 (Stats. 1911, p. 1268), and the amendment thereof, approved April 28, 1915 (Stats. 1915, p. 299). The question was carefully considered by this court in

Moore

v.

Indian Spring Channel Gold Min. Co.,

37 Cal. App. 370, [174 Pac. 378], and the legislation was upheld as within the constitutional authority of the law-making power. Therein many decisions are reviewed, and the reasons justifying such legislation are clearly stated. Our faith in the legal soundness of that decision has not been shaken, and its authority is of controlling force in the instant case.

[701]

Appellant, however, contends that a distinction exists between a corporation and a natural person as to the operation of the law, which was not urged or considered in the Moore case, and that while the statute may be and is valid as to the former, it must fail when challenged by an individual as violative of his fundamental rights expressed in section 1, article I, of our state constitution as follows: “All men are by nature free and independent, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; and pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness,” and also section 13 of said article: “ . . . nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” It is claimed that due consideration of these primary maxims in connection with the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution will furnish protection to the individual employer against the application of the drastic penalty of said law.

[1]

It is manifest, though, that as far as any substantial right or privilege of the citizen is concerned and the protection which must be accorded to it by the law, said provision of the state constitution prescribes nothing that is not comprehended by said .section of the federal constitution. Of course, the sonorous phrasing of the inalienable rights of the individual in said section is felicitous and impressive, but it effects in no degree an enlargement or abridgment of the civil immunities of the citizen, nor does it operate to limit or increase the authority of the legislative department of the state government. And said section 13 is manifestly in scope and purpose identical with said provision of the federal constitution. It may be said, therefore, that the principle of constitutional law invoked by appellant was the subject of earnest attention in ,the Moore ease,