United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Dugan v. Ohio, 277 U.S. 61 (1928)

Dugan v. Ohio

No. 766

Argued April 10, 1928

Decided May 14, 1928

277 U.S. 61

Syllabus

Petitioner was convicted and fined by the mayor of a city for a violation of the Ohio liquor law committed within the city limits. The legislative powers of the city were exercised by a commission of five, of whom the mayor was one, and its executive powers by the commission and a manager, who was the active executive. The functions of the mayor, as such, were judicial only; his sole compensation was a salary fixed by the vote of the other commissioners, and payable out of a general fund to which the fines accumulated in his court under all laws contributed, the salary being the same whether the trials before him resulted in convictions or acquittals. Held that the mayor's relations to the fund and to the financial policy of the city were too remote to warrant a presumption of bias toward conviction in prosecutions before him as judge, and that objection to the conviction in this case as wanting in due process of law must be overruled. Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U. S. 510, distinguished. P. 277 U. S. 63.

117 Oh.St. 503 affirmed.

Page 277 U. S. 62

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Ohio sustaining petitioner's conviction by a mayor's court for an offense against the Ohio liquor law.