Albright v. Karston

190 S.W.2d 433, 209 Ark. 348, 1945 Ark. LEXIS 557
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 19, 1945
Docket4-7749
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 190 S.W.2d 433 (Albright v. Karston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Albright v. Karston, 190 S.W.2d 433, 209 Ark. 348, 1945 Ark. LEXIS 557 (Ark. 1945).

Opinions

Robins, J.

Appellees filed complaint against appellant, Gray Albright, superintendent of State Police, alleging that he was unlawfully retaining certain sums of money, aggregating $6,400, which appellant had taken from their establishments in Hot Springs; that said moneys were taken for use as evidence against appellees and there was no' authority under the law for confiscation of said moneys; and they prayed that the money be ordered paid into court, so that same might be properly disposed of upon the termination of any charges against appellees as a result of the raids in which the money was taken.

By amendment there was added to the complaint an allegation that the said Albright had resigned as superintendent of State Police, but was still holding the said moneys, and in the amendment judgment for $6,400 against Albright in his official capacity and individually was asked.

Demurrer to this complaint, filed by the Attorney General on behalf of the superintendent of police, being overruled, there was a further amendment in which the amount of money taken from each of the appellees respectively was set out and judgment in favor of such appellees for these respective amounts was prayed.

Thereafter, Albright filed an answer, denying all allegations of the complaint and amendments thereto and also a “cross-complaint” in which he averred that the money held by him was taken by members of the State Police, while raiding the gambling houses of appellees, the money being used at the time in the operation thereof; and that “such moneys are subject to be and should be forfeited by plaintiffs to the State of Arkansas.” There was a prayer for “an order . . . declaring such moneys a forfeit and ordering the clerk to pay same into the state treasury.”

At the time of filing his answer, Albright paid to the sheriff $5,718.34, the amount admitted by him to be in his hands, which he alleged “was taken from the plaintiffs herein in connection with various raids upon their places of business,” and the court made an order finding that he had “deposited said sum of money with the court to bo disposed of according to law,” and discharging “Al-bright, both in his former official capacity as Superintendent of State Police, and in his individual capacity . . . from all liability therefor.”

The case was tried upon the following agreed statement of facts:

“1. That the money in question in this action was taken into custody by the defendant, Gray Albright, acting as Suprintendent of the State Police and by other members of the State Police force under the direction of the said Gray Albright in various sums from the different places being operated in the City of Hot Springs; Arkansas, by the plaintiffs, and upon various occasions.

‘‘2. That at such places being operated by the plaintiffs, and at each of them, turf exchanges or pool rooms, commonly called bookies, were maintained and operated, where money was received, bet, won and lost on horse races, and where tickets for pools on horse races to be held and run in this state &nd elsewhere were bought, sold and cashed.

“3. That at the various times when the members of the Arkansas State Police made such raids they seized the money and property involved in this case while the said places were being operated bj^ plaintiffs as set out in paragraph two hereof.

“4. The various parties plaintiff from whom the money was taken by the defendant and "his agents were charged with the offenses of operating gambling houses and with gaming, and were arrested and required to make bond and appeared in Municipal Court and their cases were submitted to the Garland County Grand Jury.

“5. That the Grand Jury returned no true bills against any oí the plaintiffs herein.

“6. That there are no charges pending against any of the plaintiffs. *

‘ ‘ 7. The defendant, Gray Albright, has paid the sum of $5,718.34 into the registry of this Court and same is all of the money seized by defendants upon said raids from plaintiffs.”

The following judgment was rendered by the lower court:

“On this 7tii day of May, 1945, this matter is presented to the Court upon the complaint and amendments thereto, answer and cross-complaint of the defendant and an agreckl Statement of Pacts, which is this day filed herein; from all of which the Court finds:

“That the State of Arkansas is not entitled to any of the money or property involved herein as a forfeit or otherwise, and that the cross-complaint of the defendant should be dismissed.

“It is therefore considered, ordered and adjudged by the Court that the cross-complaint of the defendant be, and the same is hereby dismissed, to which action of the Court, the defendant at the time excepted and prayed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Arkansas, which appeal is, by the Court granted, and the defendant allowed sixty days time in which to tender and file his Bill of Exceptions herein. ’ ’

The money involved herein was seized by the State Police under authority of search warrants which were issued in pursuance of § 3327 of Pope’s Digest: “It is hereby made and declared to be the duty and required of the judges of the Supreme Court, the judges of the circuit courts and of the justices of the peace, on information given or on their own knowledge, or where they have reasonable ground to suspect, that they issue their warrant to some peace officer, directing in such warrant a search for such gaining tables or devices hereinbefore mentioned or referred to, and directing that, on finding any such, they- shall be publicly burned by the officer executing the warrant. ’ ’

For reversal of the judgment of the lower court the Attorney General urges that the money was a part of the paraphernalia used in the operation of the gambling houses by appellees and that appellees had by their wrongful and unlawful use of these sums of money converted same into gambling devices. In support of this contention he cites our decisions in the case of State v. Sanders, 86 Ark. 353, 111 S. W. 454; and Albright v. Muncrief, 206 Ark. 319, 176 S. W. 2d 426.

The question to be decided in the Sanders case was whether a pool table, upon which the ordinary game of pool might be played without any wagering on the part of the players, but which was shown in that case to be used in games -on which bets were made, was a gambling device, within the meaning of the provisions of § 3327, supra. The court held that such table was shown to be a gambling device, saying: ‘ ‘ A gambling device is an instrumentality for the playing of a game upon which money may be lost or won; and the instrumentality is not necessarily intended solely for gambling purposes. ’ ’

In the Muncrief case the court held that teletype machines, over which bookmakers received racing information used by them in unlawfully accepting wagers on the results at race tracks throughout the country, might be seized and destroyed as gambling devices. In both of these Arkansas cases the court was 'dealing with instrumentalities through and by means of which the gambling operations were actually being carried on — not with the money or property that was bet by the players.

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Bluebook (online)
190 S.W.2d 433, 209 Ark. 348, 1945 Ark. LEXIS 557, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/albright-v-karston-ark-1945.