MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS-FENCING ORDINANCES

Authors

Abstract

Defendant city passed an ordinance which prohibited the erection of fences that exceeded four feet in height, or which were composed wholly or in part of barbed wire. Plaintiff was refused permission to build a woven wire fence, six feet high with barbed wire attached to arms extending inward at the top. Plaintiff thereupon sued to enjoin defendant city from enforcing this ordinance, claiming that it deprived her of property without "due process." Held, by the court, that the right to fence one's land is a right of property that cannot be unreasonably interfered with. The ordinance in question was held unconstitutional because such regulations could not be justified by any requirement of public health, safety or morals, and it was therefore an unreasonable exercise of the police power. Williams v. City of Hudson, (Wis. 1935) 262 N. W. 607.

Recommended Citation

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS-FENCING ORDINANCES, 34 Mich. L. Rev. 1050 (1936).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol34/iss7/19