Coghill v. State

37 Ind. 111
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1871
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 37 Ind. 111 (Coghill v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coghill v. State, 37 Ind. 111 (Ind. 1871).

Opinion

Búskirk, J.

The appellant was indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to the state prison, for the term oftwo years, for obstructing a railroad track. The court overruled motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, and the appellant excepted. The evidence is not in the record, and, consequently, we shall presume that the verdict was sustained by the evidence. The motion in arrest of judgment raises the question of whether the indictment was sufficient.

The appellant presents for our consideration and decision but one question, and that is, whether the section of the [112]*112statute upon which this indictment was based has been repealed. The indictment was founded upon section 29 of the “act defining felonies and prescribing punishment therefor,” approved June 10th, 1852, which reads as follows:

“Sec. 29. If any person shall wilfully and maliciously place any obstructions upon the track of any railroad, or change any switch, or remove the fastenings thereof, so as to endanger the passage of trains, or break, destroy, steal, take or carry away any lock or guard upon such switch, or wilfully commit any other act to throw the engine of cars running upon such railroad from such track, he shall be imprisoned. in the state prison not less than one, nor more than seven years; and ifj from any accident on any such road, resulting from any such act, any person be so injured that death ensue as the immediate consequence thereof; the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of murder in the second degree, and upon conviction shall be imprisoned in the state prison during life.” 2 G. & H. 446.

It is maintained, with great earnestness and ability, that the above section was repealed, by implication, by section 66 of “the act defining misdemeanors and prescribing punishment therefor,” approved June 14th, 1852, which reads as follows:

“Sec. '66. Every person who shall, in any manner, obstruct any public highway, railroad, toWpath, canal, turnpike, plank or coal road, or injure any toll or other bridge, or toll-gate, culvert, embankment, or lock, or make any breach in any canal, or injure any material used in the construction of such roads and canal, such person, and all other persons aiding and abetting therein, shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisoned not exceeding three months; and upon prosecution for obstructing a highway, it shall be sufficient to prove that it is used and worked as such.” 2 G. & H. 475.

The only error assigned and relied on in argument is, that section 29 of the felony act was repealed by section 66 of the misdemeanor act. Is the position well taken? Sedgwick, [113]*113in his valuable work on Statutory and Constitutional Law, p. 127, states the law as follows: “So in this country, on the same principle, it has been said that laws are presumed to be passed with deliberation, and with full knowledge of all existing ones on the same subject'; and it is, therefore, but reasonable to conclude that the legislature, in passing a statute, did not intend to interfere with or abrogate any prior law relating to the same matter, unless the repugnancy between the two is irreconcilable; and hence a repeal by implication is not favored; on the 'contrary, courts are bound to uphold the prior law, if the two acts may well subsist together.”

It was held by this court, in Blain v. Bailey, 25 Ind. 165, that “ it is a maxim in the construction of statutes, that the law does not favor a repeal by implication, and it has accordingly been held that where two acts are seemingly repugnant, they must, if possible, be so construed that the latter may not operate as a repeal of the former.” Bowen v. Lease, 5 Hill, N. Y. 221; Bruce v. Schuyler, 4 Gilm. Ill. 221; Dwar. Stat. 674. It has also been held, in pursuance of this maxim, that an act is not repealed by implication where the legislature had no intention to repeal it. Tyson v. Postlethwaite, 13 Ill. 727.”

It was held by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Norris v. Crocker, 13 How. U. S. 429, that, “as a general rule it is not open to controversy, that where a new statute covers the whole subject-matter of an old one, adds ■ offences, and prescribes different penalties for those enumerated in the old law, then the former statute is repealed by implication; as the provisions of both cannot stand together. To ascertain whether there be a repugnance, the two enactments must be compared.”

The principles enumerated in the above authorities meet with our entire approval. To constitute a repeal by implica-1tion, the new statute must cover the whole subject-matter of. [114]*114the old one, and prescribe different penalties. Let us compare the two enactments.

Under the first statute, it is essential that the act should be done wilfully and maliciously. Malice is an essential ingredient of the crime. The following definition of malice was given by the learned judge who presided at the trial of John W. Webster for the murder of Dr. George Parkman: Malice, in this definition, is used in a technical' sense, including not only anger, hatred, and revenge, but every other unlawful and unjustifiable motive. It is not confined to ill will toward one or more individual persons, but is intended to denote an action flowing from any wicked and corrupt motive, a thing done malo animo, where the fact has been attended with such circumstances as carry in them the plain' indications of a heart regardless of social duty, and fatally bent on mischief. And, therefore, malice is implied from any deliberate or cruel act against another, however sudden.” Commonwealth v. Webster, 5 Cush. 295.

By the latter statute, the offence is complete without malice. By the first statute, the offence consists in placing an obstruction upon the track of the railroad, or changing a switch so as to endanger the passage of trains. By the last statute, the offence does not necessarily consist in placing the obstruction upon the track, and not at all with the intention of endangering the passage of trains. The gravamen of the crime, under the first statute, consists in wilfully committing any act to throw the engine or cars running upon a railroad from the track. This wicked intent is not necessary to create the offence under the latter act. There is a wide and marked difference between the two enactments in another respect. In the first section, it is provided that if death results as the immediate consequence of any accident caused by such obstruction, the person placing such obstruction upon the track shall be deemed guilty of murder in the second degree, and upon conviction shall be imprisoned in the state prison during life.

The new act contains no such provision. The last act [115]*115■does not cover the entire subject-matter of the first. The two may subsist together, and both may be executed; the first, when the act is done wilfully, maliciously, and with the intent and for the purpose declared therein. The second may be enforced when the act is done without malice, and without the intent necessary to constitute the crime under the first act, but is done mischievously, carelessly, or negligently. These sections can subsist together, and be enforced in the same manner that section 12 of the felony act, and section 3 of the misdemeanor act subsist together, and are enforced.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Williams v. State
147 N.E. 153 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1925)
State v. Walters
66 So. 364 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1914)
Welty v. State
100 N.E. 73 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1912)
State v. Squibb
84 N.E. 969 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1908)
Harris v. State
58 N.E. 75 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1900)
Wilburn v. Territory of New Mexico
10 N.M. 402 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1900)
Snearley v. State
52 S.W. 547 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1899)
Braun v. State
49 S.W. 620 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1899)
Thomas v. Town of Butler
38 N.E. 808 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1894)
State v. Brugh
32 N.E. 869 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1892)
Sosat v. State
28 N.E. 1017 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1891)
Merritt v. Gibson
15 L.R.A. 277 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1891)
Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad v. Dunlap
13 N.E. 403 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1887)
City of Evansville v. Summers
9 N.E. 81 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1886)
Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Brown
8 N.E. 171 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1886)
McDermott v. State
89 Ind. 187 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1883)
Walker v. State
7 Tex. Ct. App. 245 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1879)
Blakemore v. Dolan
50 Ind. 194 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1875)
Clark v. Town of Noblesville
44 Ind. 83 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1873)
Water Works Co. v. Burkhart
41 Ind. 364 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1872)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 Ind. 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coghill-v-state-ind-1871.