County Commissioners v. Northwest Cemetery Co.

Urner, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The County Commissioners of Prince George’s County have sought by this injunction suit to prevent the Northwest ⁶⁵⁵ Cemetery Company, Incorporated, from developing and maintaining a cemetery in that county because the company has not obtained permission for the purpose from the County Commissioners under chapter 187 of the Acts of 1929, providing as follows: “It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to establish or maintain in Prince George’s County a cemetery or graveyard for the burial of homan bodies without the written permission, first obtained of the County Commissioners of said county. Provided, however, that the written permission of the County Commissioners for the establishment of a cemetery or graveyard shall not ■waive the provisions of any zoning law or any other law which applies to the establishment of a cemetery or graveyard, the requirement of this section being intended as an addition to and not in substitution of any existing law or laws. Any person, firm or corporation violating any provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000).

The County Commissioners shall also have all the powers by way of injunction, which the law gives, to prevent the establishment or maintenance or to cause the removal when once established or maintained of a cemetery or graveyard, sought to be established or maintained, or actually established and maintained, without the written permission of the County Commissioners obtained as aforesaid.”' A demurrer to the bill of complaint asserted that the act is invalid under the Eederal and State Constitutions. Upon that ground the demurrer was sustained with leave to amend, and, this privilege not having been utilized, the bill was dismissed by a decree which is the occasion of the pending appeal. The specific basis of the objection to the act is that it attempts to confer upon the county commissioners a wholly unregulated discretion to allow or to prevent the establishment or maintenance of a cemetery anywhere in Prince George’s County. There is no indication in the act of any conditions with reference to which the authority should be ⁶⁵⁶ exercised.

It gives the county commissioners no direction whatever as to the grounds upon which permission to establish or maintain a cemetery might be properly granted or refused. The import of the act is that a permit from the county commissioners shall be required, not only for the establishment of a new cemetery, but also for the continued maintenance of one already in existence. The application of the act is not confined by its terms to- localities where it might