People v. Davis

137 N.W. 61, 171 Mich. 241, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 623
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 11, 1912
DocketDocket No. 131
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 137 N.W. 61 (People v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Davis, 137 N.W. 61, 171 Mich. 241, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 623 (Mich. 1912).

Opinion

Steere, J.

Respondent was • convicted in the Mason county circuit court of keeping open his saloon in the city of Ludington on Sunday, October 1, 1911, in violation of the statute regulating sale of intoxicating liquors. Preliminary examination was had before a committing magistrate, in which testimony was introduced by the prosecution tending to show that on the day in question a witness visited respondent’s saloon in company with .respondent’s barkeeper, who had, in answer to an inquiry if there was any drink going around, told him that “he guessed he could slide some,” and led the way around through a back alley, entering the saloon by the back door, where witness was served with whisky and beer, saw respondent there, and treated him and another who was present.

[243]*243No testimony was offered in behalf of respondent, and he was bound over to circuit court for trial. When arraigned in the circuit court, he stood mute and refused to plead to the information filed against him, whereupon a plea of not guilty was entered by order of the court in his behalf. On January 3, 1912, his case was brought on for trial before a jury duly impaneled and sworn. The prosecution then called a witness, who was sworn to testify and was about to be interrogated, when counsel for respondent objected to the introduction of any evidence in the case for the reason that the return of the magistrate, purporting to contain all th¿ evidence taken on the preliminary examination, disclosed no testimony to the effect that respondent was a saloon keeper within the meaning of the statute, it not being shown that he had filed a bond, or taken out a license qualifying him to maintain a lawful saloon at times when sales were not forbidden. This objection was overruled, and error is assigned on such ruling.

The objection came too late. If the point could have been well taken at any time, counsel should have moved to quash the information and dismiss respondent before the jury was sworn. In People v. Brott, 163 Mich. 150 (128 N. W. 236), it was said:

“ The motion to quash for want of testimony before the justice on the examination was properly overruled. Upon that question, also, the magistrate was permitted to act without his attention being called to this claim, which was first raised at circuit after the jury was sworn, and when a discharge on a technical point might be final, by reason of defendants having been in jeopardy.”

During the progress of the trial Henry Gr. Reek, the prosecuting attorney, was sworn as a witness for the purpose of proving records from the county treasurer’s office showing that defendant had taken the regular steps qualifying him to legally conduct a saloon where intoxicating liquors were sold at the place alleged. Under objection, said witness was permitted to testify that a liquor license, or red card, or receipt, containing respondent’s name, was [244]*244posted up in his place of business; that he had examined the records in the county treasurer’s office with reference to retail liquor dealers’bonds; that he there found a liquor dealer’s bond, filed April 26,1911, executed by respondent as principal, bearing the filemark C. F. Meads, county treasurer, which he produced, identified, and offered in evidence. Said witness also identified as an official record taken from the county treasurer’s office, and offered in evidence, a record of liquor licenses of the county. On cross-examination witness testified that he was not county treasurer, nor a deputy, and what he knew of the record was what he had been told.

For the purpose of identifying the proprietor, it was proper for the witness to testify as to a license card posted up in the saloon, and its contents. People v. Baumann, 52 Mich. 584 (18 N. W. 369).

While it is more regular, reliable, and indicative of proper official care and responsibility for public records to be produced and identified by the legal custodian rather than a borrower, the bond and record of licenses issued were testified to be from the county treasurer’s office, the proper place therefor. The record of licenses is of that class of writing known as “official registers,” kept by persons in public office, in which they are required either by statute or the nature and demands of their office, to record certain official transactions in the routine of their regular duties. Such records, when identified, are generally admissible in evidence, notwithstanding their authenticity is not sustained as to their contents by the testimony either of the person who knew the facts reoorded, or who made the record, and upon whose authority and integrity the truth of the record depends. When such books are produced, and shown to have come from the proper official depository, they are, as a rule, admissible in evidence without further attestation. 1 Greenleaf on Evidence, § 485. It is true that the witness, after testifying that the record of liquor licenses issued, which he produced and offered in evidence, was the official record kept by the [245]*245county treasurer of Mason county, further answered, on cross-examination, that all he knew of the records was what some one else told him. But he also testified that he found them in the treasurer’s office. The effect of such apparently inconsistent statements went to the sufficiency and probative force of such evidence, rather than its admissibility, and was a question of fact for the jury rather than of law for the court. His testimony as to the liquor dealer’s bond, a file of the county treasurer’s office, was more specific and properly admissible under McLeod v. Crosby, 128 Mich. 641 (87 N. W. 883).

Error is alleged on the following ruling:

“Q. Mr. Papke, when you went there to Mr. Duyer’s room on this Sunday, which you told us about, to get him to go to that saloon, was it because you really wanted a drink, or was it because you wanted to get him to violate the law ?
The Court: You have been all over that, and asked exactly the same question. Once will do.”

Aside from the reason given by the court for the ruling, the record shows that the witness had been twice before thoroughly cross-examined by counsel until apparently through and satisfied. Numerous derogatory questions had been asked him along the same lines, the court allowing ample latitude in that particular. Control of cross-examination as to motive, purpose, and intent, as bearing on the credibility of a witness is largely within the discretion of the trial judge, and we find no abuse of discretion in the ruling complained of.

It is claimed respondent’s rights were prejudiced, and the case should be reversed, because of improper comments by the prosecuting attorney while making his argument to the jury. The record only gives such fragmentary and disjunctive expressions from his address as objections were made to, leaving the cause and context largely to conjecture, though it is manifest in some instances and inferable in others that his remarks were in response to arguments or statements of respondent’s [246]*246counsel. The following expressions are those most seriously complained of:'

“ I want to say first that these eases, prosecutions of saloon cases, are very difficult cases. * * * Further, that it is difficult to make local witnesses stand up in cases of this character.
“Mr. Wetmore: I take exception to that statement. * * #

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 N.W. 61, 171 Mich. 241, 1912 Mich. LEXIS 623, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-davis-mich-1912.