Douglass v. State

53 Fla. 27
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 53 Fla. 27 (Douglass v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Douglass v. State, 53 Fla. 27 (Fla. 1907).

Opinion

Hocker, J.:

The plaintiff in error, Harman F. Douglass, hereafter referred to as the plaintiff, was convicted of manslaughter in the Criminal Court of Record of Orange County, in June, 1906, and from the sentence and judgment entered, has sued out a writ of error from this court. The only count of the information necessary to be considered is the second, which is as follows, vis.: “And the county solicitor aforesaid, under oath as aforesaid, further information makes that Harman F. Douglass, late of the county of Orange aforesaid, in the county and state aforesaid, laborer, on the 1st day óf March, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Six, and continuously from said date until the 29th day of [29]*29March, 1906, with force and arms at and in the County of Orange and State of Florida aforesaid, at a certain turpentine camp then and there being operated in the said County of Orange and State of Florida, the said Harman F. Douglass having then and there the direction, management and control of the said turpentine camp, and by reason thereof having then and there the supreme custody and control of one George Campbell, the said George Campbell being then and there held as a prisoner in said turpentine camp by the said Harman F. Douglass, and the said Harman F. Douglass, by virtue of so having the supreme control and custody of the said George Campbell as aforesaid, being under the legal duty to provide for the necessary protection of the life and health of the said George Campbell, and under the legal duty to provide for and furnish all and sufficient medicines, medical and surgical care and attention, and proper food and nursing in case of sickness of the said George Campbell while so in his supreme control and custody, and having the means to discharge all of his herein recited duties, and the said George Campbell, being so held as a prisoner, being unable by reason thereof to provide for himself the necessary medicines, medical care and attention, and proper food and nursing, and the said George Campbell being then and there ill and crippled from certain grievous wounds, inflammations and sores upon his feet and body (a better description of which is to ¡the county solicitor unknown), the said Harman F. Douglass did then and there, unlawfully, feloniously and culpably fail and neglect to provide the necessary food, care, nursing, medicines and medical care and attention and treatment for the said George Campbell, proper and needful for the said George Campbell in his said ill and crippled con[30]*30dition, by reason whereof the said George Campbell then and there sickened and languished of a mortal sickness, so as aforesaid, caused, produced, permitted and procured, feloniously and with culpable negligence then and there by the said Harman F. Douglass, until the 29th day of March, 1906, on which said 29th day of March, 1906, the said George Campbell, of the said mortal sickness, so as aforesaid caused, produced, permitted and procured, feloniously and of his culpable negligence by the said Harman F. Douglass, then and there died.

And the county solicitor aforesaid, under oath as aforesaid, further information makes that James F. Lowry and Arthur Lowry, late of the County of Orange aforesaid, in the county and State aforesaid, laborers, were then and there at the time and place of the commission of the felony aforesaid, feloniously present, and did then and there unlawfully, feloniously and culpably counsel, aid, incite, abet and procure the said Harman F. Douglass the said felony, in manner and form and by the means aforesaid, then and there to do and commit.

And so the county solicitor aforesaid, under oath as aforesaid, does say that the said Harman F. Douglass, James F. Lowry and Arthur Lowry, the said George Campbell, in the manner and by the means aforesaid, unlawfully, feloniously and of their culpable negligence aforesaid, did then and there kill and slay.”

The plaintiff, at and before the time of the alleged offense, Avas in charge of a convict camp near Gabriella in Orange County, and had control of the convicts placed in said camp, including George Campbell, described in the information.

The evidence shows; we think, beyond any reasonable [31]*31doubt that Campbell was a convict and was placed in charge of the plaintiff about .the first of January, 1906. At that time and until about the first of March, 1906, he appears to have been in reasonably good health. At about the latter date Campbell’s feet, and especially one of them, became diseased so that he could not walk to and from his work in the turpentine farm, and he staid around the stockade in which the convicts were confined when not at work. He became worse and about the 22nd of March, a physician,. who had been summoned to the camp to attend a convict who had been shot, was asked by some one in the camp tq look at Campbell. The physician looked at his swollen and diseased foot, and prescribed a disinfectant wash to be applied to the sores. He seems to have been told that there was not much the matter with Campbell, and gave him a very perfunctory examination. He says that he had a very bad foot, was. very much emaciated, and for all that he knows might have had typhoid fever. After the 22nd of March Campbell got worse, his foot became very offensive, and he was placed in a small house outside the stockade called the hospital.

On the 28th of March two gentleman from Orlando, Mr. Jones, a lawyer, and Mr. Kirkwood, a deputy sheriff, went to the camp and in the absence of Mr. Douglass, who was out fishing, they went into ■ the room where Campbell was. They found him lying on a pallet in one corner of the room, which was about 14 by 18 feet. The pallet was made of a slight layer of hay, with a comfort thrown over it, and Campbell was covered with a blanket. Another sick convict was lying on a similar pallet in another corner of the' room. The room was filthy and exceedingly offensive, so much so that Mr. Kirkwood says he had to leave it after being in it a few moments. By [32]*32Campbell’s side on the floor was a small can containing water, and a plate in which there was some cornbread, and perhaps some other article of food, over which, as over Campbell, the flies were swarming in vast numbers. Mr. Jones examined Campbell’s feet, and they were wrapped in rags and were very filthy. The pus had oozed out from under the edges of the rags and had soaked through them. Campbell was of a ginger-bread color, and was ashy. He was a great deal emaciated. The swelling in his legs extended above his ankles. Mr. Jones placed his hand on Campbell’s forehead and found his skin soft and clammy. His pulse was very feeble. . The stench from his feet was “insufferable.” Mr. Kirkwood corroborates Mr. Jones in all important particulars, and there is in the record no evidence which substantially conflicts with, this. Campbell died on the 29th of March, and no physician saw him dr was called to see him aftér the 22nd of March. A fair inference from the testimony of the physicians is that his death was. accelerated, if not caused, by septicaemia, or blood poisoning, resulting from the absorption into the system of the poisonous pus .from his diseased foot. The plaintiff in error does not deny that it was his duty to care for Campbell. He endeavors to show by several of the employes around the stockade that he was attended, and they say that his sore foot was washed with antiseptic wash as directed by the doctor on the 22nd of March, and some quinine and chill tonic was given, but Campbell’s condition on the 28th as described by Mr. Jones and Mr. Kirkwood was not contradicted. Mr. Douglass admits that Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
53 Fla. 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/douglass-v-state-fla-1907.