Brown v. State

152 P. 578, 17 Ariz. 314, 1915 Ariz. LEXIS 129
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 9, 1915
DocketCriminal No. 381
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 152 P. 578 (Brown v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. State, 152 P. 578, 17 Ariz. 314, 1915 Ariz. LEXIS 129 (Ark. 1915).

Opinion

ROSS, C. J.

The appellant, by information, was charged with the crime of selling “beer, ale, and intoxicating liquor” contrary to the prohibitory amendment to the Constitution of Arizona. The case was tried to the court without a jury, and upon the evidence the appellant was by the court found guilty as charged, and sentenced to pay a fine and to imprisonment in the county jail. This appeal is being prosecuted from the judgment of conviction.

The findings of fact, as given by the trial court, are interestingly stated as follows:

‘ ‘ Contrary to a more or less prevalent opinion, courts cannot decide questions of fact upon rumor, street talk or what evidence might or should have been introduced by the party, but solely upon what appears in court. The state, in this case, did not attempt in any manner to prove that barette, the liquor which Brown admitted he sold, is intoxicating, while the defense produced a number of reputable witnesses, more or less familiar with this liquor, who testified positively that it would be practically impossible for any man to become intoxicated on barette, no matter how much he drank. On the evidence, the court is compelled to hold that the liquor sold by L. A. Brown in this case was nonintoxieating. The only question then remains as to whether what was sold was beer. . . .

‘ ‘ The evidence of the state and the defense in this case agree substantially on the process of manufacture of the liquor in question. Without going into it in detail, it is quite clear in the mind of this court that barette is beer, regardless of what name it may be called by. From the above we find that the substance sold by the defendant in this case was a nonintoxicating beer.”

We may say, in aid and in explanation of the findings of the court, that the liquor which the appellant was charged with selling was in bottles labeled as follows;

[316]*316“Barette. Nonintoxicating beverage. Contains less than 2 per cent, alcohol by volume. Prepared by Copper City Brewing Co., Douglas, Arizona. Guaranteed by the Copper City Brewing Co. under the United States Pood and Drug Act of 1906, series 26699.”

Dr. Charles A. Meserve, who testified as an expert in behalf of the state, said that he analyzed the contents of one of said bottles, and that he found, as a result, that it contained 1.96 per cent by volume and 1.56 per cent by weight of alcohol. The brewmaster for the Copper City Brewing Company explained, in his testimony, the processes of manufacturing beer and barette, and, according to his testimony, both are malt liquors, the former being at the Copper City Brewing Company’s plant made from barley, rice and hops, and the latter from barley and hops. It requires from 6 weeks to 2 months to make beer and from 10 to 14 days to manufacture barette, according to the testimony of the brewmaster. The latter witness defined barette as “a nonintoxicating malt beverage, as far as I can say. ’ ’ That he recognized it as a kind of beer is shown by this statement in his testimony:

“In barette we have a carbonator. It is a tank up about this high [indicating] and a screen in there with holes in it where the gas runs in on one side, and the beer runs in on the other side. The gas and the beer mix themselves together, and it runs itself together under pressure in another tank. ’ ’

Dr. Meserve defined it as follows: “I consider it to be an alcoholic beverage closely resembling beer. More specifically, perhaps, a small beer or light beer. Light used in the sense of contents, rather than color.”

The appellant complains of the court’s finding of fact' to the effect that the liquor in question was beer, and to the' conclusion of law therefrom that the defendant was guilty, regardless of the nonintoxicating quality of the liquor.

The law the defendant is charged with violating is article 23, an initiated amendment to the Constitution of Arizona,' which became effective January 1, 1915: It reads as follows:

“Section 1. Ardent spirits, ale, béer, wine, or intoxicating liquor or liquors of whatever kind shall not be manufactured in or introduced into the state of Arizona under any pretense. Every person who sells, exchanges, gives, bargains, or disposes of any ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating [317]*317liquor of any kind to any person in the state of Arizona, or who manufactures, or introduces into, or attempts to introduce into the state of Arizona any ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquor of any kind, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be imprisoned for not less than ten days nor more than two years and fined not less than twenty-five dollars and costs nor more than three hundred dollars and costs for each offense: Provided, that nothing in this amendment contained shall apply to the manufacture or sale of denatured alcohol.”

This prohibition amendment was lifted almost bodily from an act of the Congress of the United States, regulating and prohibiting the introduction and sale of liquors into what was known as the Indian country. This congressional act had for its object the protection of the American Indian against the liquor traffic. The first congressional act was passed as early as 1832, and was limited to prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors and wines to Indians in an Indian reservation. . This act was amended in 1862, making it a crime to sell any spirituous liquors or wines to an Indian anywhere, either in or off of a reservation. Act of July 9, 1832, chapter 174, section 4, 4 Stat. 564, as amended by act of July 23, 1892, chapter 234, 27 Stat. 260, was held in Sarlls v. United States, 152 U. S. 570, 38 L. Ed. 556, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 720, not to prohibit the introduction and sale of lager beer into the Indian country, but, evidently in anticipation of the ruling of the court, and before the supreme court had passed upon the Sarlls Case, the Congress of the United States in 1892 amended the act of 1832 to read as follows:

“No ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquor or liquors of whatever kind shall be introduced, under any pretense, into the Indian country. Every person who sells, exchanges, gives, barters, or disposes .of any ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquors of any kind to any Indian under charge of any Indian superintendent or agent, or introduces or attempts to introduce any ardent spirits, ale, wine, beer, or intoxicating liquor of any kind into the Indian country shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years, and by fine of not more than three hundred dollars for each offense. ”

[318]*318In the Sarlls Case the supreme court referred to section 2139, as recently amended, and made this significant statement in connection therewith:

‘ ‘ This would seem to show that Congress regarded the act, as it previously stood, as not including ale and beer in its terms. At any rate, the temptation to the courts to stretch the law to cover an acknowledged evil is how removed. ’ ’

While this statement of the court perhaps was not- called for in the decision of the case before it, it is, however, the expression of the highest judicial tribunal of this country to the effect that, according to its views, “ale and beer” could no longer be introduced into the Indian country or sold to Indians.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
152 P. 578, 17 Ariz. 314, 1915 Ariz. LEXIS 129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-state-ariz-1915.