Ex parte Casinello

Morrison, O. J.: On the eighteenth of July, 1880, the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco passed the following order:

“Section 47. No person shall throw into or deposit upon any public street, highway, or grounds, or upon any private premises, or anywhere except in such a place as may be designated for that purpose by the Superintendent of Public Streets and Highways, any glass, broken ware, dirt, rubbish, garbage, or filth.” And the penalty prescribed for a violation of the order was a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both such fine and imprisonment.

In pursuance of the above order, the Superintendent of [539]Public Streets and Highways designated the line of Sixth street, south of Channel, as a “dumping place,” or place of deposit.

On the second day of February, 1881, a complaint was filed in the Police Judge’s Court of said city and county, charging that the petitioner “did willfully and unlawfully throw into and deposit upon certain lands at Channel and Fifth Streets, in said city and county, a large quantity of broken ware, dirt, rubbish, garbage, and filth; the said place where the same was thrown and deposited not being a place designated for that purpose by the Superintendent of Public Streets and Highways of said city and county.” On this complaint there was a trial and conviction.

It is claimed, in the first place, that the foregoing complaint is insufficient, and that it charges no ■ offense. To my mind, it is very clear, however, that the complaint charges . the petitioner with a violation of the order of the Board of Supervisors referred to above; and the only remaining inquiry relates to the validity of that order. Numerous objections are made to it, such as that it is oppressive, unjust, unreasonable, and also that it is unconstitutional.

The provisions of the Constitution, which, it is claimed, are violated by the order, are Sections 1 and 21 of Article i. But I am unable to discover any application which the constitutional provisions referred to have to the order in question.

The objections that the order is oppressive, unjust, and unreasonable are, in my opinion, not well taken. That dirt, rubbish, garbage, and filth are in their nature nuisances, is too plain to admit of controversy; and that glass and broken ware can be very easily converted into nuisances if thrown about promiscuously, is equally plain.