Pierce v. State

315 S.W.2d 271, 204 Tenn. 14, 8 McCanless 14, 1958 Tenn. LEXIS 240
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 6, 1958
StatusPublished

This text of 315 S.W.2d 271 (Pierce v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pierce v. State, 315 S.W.2d 271, 204 Tenn. 14, 8 McCanless 14, 1958 Tenn. LEXIS 240 (Tenn. 1958).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Swepston

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Plaintiffs in error, hereinafter called defendants, were convicted for the offense of assault and battery, were fined $1,000 each and were sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in the County jail of Chester County. They have appealed and assigned several errors. The first assignment is too general. The second assignment is as to the [16]*16preponderance of the evidence, which will require a brief statement of same.

The incident herein occurred in and nearby a “beer joint” or a sort of night club operated by Flavis Pierce near Henderson, Tennessee, called “The Block House”, which was operated for him by his brother Robert. As a sideline, Robert was engaged in bootlegging until he was apprehended a few days prior to this occurrence by the Federal Alcohol Tax officers. The defendants conceived the idea that one Hester Patterson was the informant on Robert Pierce. The proof indicates that Flavis had decided to give up his lease and to cease operating this beer joint and that at the time of this occurrence he was not catering to the general public but he had a quantity of beer on hand and some other items, such as a few fixtures, which he wished to dispose of.

The victim of the assault, Hester Patterson, testified that Flavis had driven by his home several times making inquiry for him when he was not at home. That on this afternoon of Thursday, September 13,1956, after he had come home from picking cotton, Flavis came by his home and offered to sell him some beer at $3 per case, which was less than wholesale price. They left in the car belonging to Flavis, stopped at another beer joint on the way to the Block House and picked up Robert Pierce and then continued on to the Block House. That as soon as they had entered the Block House, the door was closed, a pistol was stuck in his ribs by Flavis and Patterson was told that they were going to beat him to death because he had informed on Robert. He said they then beat him over the head with a slapjack, a toy baseball bat, a loaded shotgun and a loaded pistol which was fired [17]*17daring the episode and that after working him over for a while, they demanded $500 as the price for his release. He told them he could not raise over $200, so they proceeded to work on him further. As a result, he was badly beaten about the head, as a result of which about a dozen places were required to he sewed up and three of his upper front teeth were knocked out. That two young men drove up to the place and opened the door from the outside, which Patterson himself says he had been unable to open from the inside and with that, Patterson ran out in front of the place, yelling to these other two young men for help, but they turned around and drove away. He testified that Flavis then followed him outside, knocked him down and beat on him some more and then went back in the house to get a shotgun whereupon the victim jumped up and started running across the field and was pursued by Flavis and caught up with about 200 yards away, where Flavis knocked him down on the highway and stamped him with his feet. There were no eyewitnesses to the occurrence inside the Block House but there were witnesses to the fact that they ran across the field and the continuance of the beating on the highway. As a result of this, in addition to the above injuries, his left eye was completely shut, the left side of his face was extremely swollen, and his left eardrum and his nose hemorrhaged, causing him to spit up quite a lot of blood.

The defendants took the position that Robert had nothing to do with the fight other than try to separate the two and Flavis testified that Patterson made the attack on him and that Patterson was a much larger man and that Flavis was really the one that was beaten up.

The sheriff was called in the meantime and he arrived on the scene while Patterson was still on the ground [18]*18along the side of the highway. He arrested Flavis, took him to jail, then obtained the keys to the Block House, went back to the same and in searching the place he found considerable blood around the place, the broken little baseball bat, the torn slapjack, both of which were bloody and in the refrigerator he found a shotgun with considerable blood stains on it, and further, two bullets that had been fired and the three teeth, as well as some other bits of evidence of the struggle.

The wife of Flavis testified that she asked the sheriff to get the keys to her husband’s automobile and that the sheriff obtained not only that key but also the key to the Block House and that he then required her to go with him and that he went in the Block House after he had told her that she had to go with him. The sheriff made no denial of this but said that he did not remember the circumstances.

The jury had all this testimony before them and after examining the same, we are satisfied that they were fully warranted in reaching the verdict they did.

The next important question raised is whether the court committed error in failing to quash the indictment because four members of the grand jury were women. It is said that the indictment is void because Ch. 115, Private Acts of 1911, providing for a jury in Chester County, states that only men may serve on the grand jury; that T.C.A. sec. 22-101 prescribing the qualifications for jurors, which under the 1951 amendment now provides that every person 21 years of age is eligible for jury service, does not affect said above mentioned Private Act because T.C.A. sec. 1-205 provides that local or private acts are not repealed by the enactment of the Ten[19]*19nessee Code Annotated, unless repealed by necssary implication.

The State insists, and we agree, that T.C.A. sec. 22-101 affects the rights of citizens in their individual relationship rather than the County in its governmental capacity; and this being true, in order for said Private Act of 1911 to be valid, there must appear some good reason why women in Chester County should not be permitted to serve on juries since they are permitted under the general law to serve in all other counties of the State. Bandy v. State, 185 Tenn. 190, 192, 204 S.W.2d 819; and City of Memphis v. Yellow Cab, 201 Tenn., 71, 296 S.W.2d 864, 866, wherein it is said:

“This Private Act of 1943, whether or not formally repealed by the 1956 Code, is void of legal integrity because it purports, in violation of Article XI, Section 8 of the Tennessee Constitution, to suspend the general law reflected in the sections mentioned of the 1950 Code Supplement, and, next, of the 1956 Code.”

See also, the old case of Pesterfield v. Vickers, 43 Tenn. 205, wherein it was held, while the charter of a municipal corporation enacted by the legislature was saved from repeal, still a city ordinance inconsistent with the general law becomes inoperative.

It so happens that this same question was raised in Gerry v. Volger, 252 App. Div. 217, 298 N.Y.S. 433. That case is practically on all fours with the instant case and it was held that the general act repealed the former special act. Hence, we overrule this assignment.

The next assignment is predicated on the following : For a few minutes before the trial jury was sworn [20]

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Related

Liakas v. State
286 S.W.2d 856 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1956)
Atkins v. Harris
304 S.W.2d 650 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1957)
Bandy v. State
204 S.W.2d 819 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1947)
Oliphant v. State
282 S.W. 206 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1925)
Gerry v. Volger
252 A.D. 217 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1937)
McElrath v. State
32 Tenn. 378 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1852)
Clapp v. State
30 S.W. 214 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1895)
City of Memphis v. Yellow Cab, Inc.
296 S.W.2d 864 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1956)

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Bluebook (online)
315 S.W.2d 271, 204 Tenn. 14, 8 McCanless 14, 1958 Tenn. LEXIS 240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pierce-v-state-tenn-1958.