Reed v. State

2 Tex. L. R. 466
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1883
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Tex. L. R. 466 (Reed v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reed v. State, 2 Tex. L. R. 466 (Tex. 1883).

Opinion

Opinion by

White, P. J.

Omitting the formal parts, it is alleged in the indictment “that George Reed, in said county and state, on the 2nd day of February in the year of Our Lord, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, did then and there unlawfully in the night time by force, break and enter a house then and there used and occupied by S.Simon as a saloon, without the consent of said Simon, with the unlawful and fraudulent intent, then and there, on the part of him the said Reed, to take and carry away from and out of said house, one hundred and twenty-five dollars, in good and lawful current money of the United States of America, of the value of one hundred and twenty-five dollars, a part of said money being currency paper money, and a part silver money (a more particular or definite description of said money being unknown to the grand jury) the property of said Simon, without the consent of said Simon and with the fraudulent intent then and there on the part oí him, the said Reed, to deprive said owner of the value of said property, and to appropriate the same to his, the said Reed’s, own use and benefit, against the “peace and dignity of the state.”

[467]*467A motion to quash the indictment was made, based upon two grounds. First. It does not allege the entry to have been made without the free consent of any one besides the occupant authorized to give such consent. Second. It does not allege that the money, the intent to steal which the entry is charged to have been made, was in the possession of any one, and that it was the intent of the defendant to take such money from the possession of any one without his consent. It therefore does not charge an intent to commit theft.

In the motion in arrest of judgment another ground urged to the sufficiency of the indictment is that “it fails to allege that defendant feloniously made an entrance in said house,” and in the brief of counsel for appellant it is contended that “to charge the offense for burglary the indictment must allege that the entrance that the entrance and breaking was burglariously and feloniously committed.

Let us examine the last objections first.

Mr. Bishop says : “The criminal act must be charged as done both “feloniously” and “burglariously” terms of art for which there are no substitutes.” But he says : “There are statutes under which neither “burglariously” nor “feloniously” is regarded, but generally both are essential to the statutory indictment, the same as at common law. 2 Bish. Or. Law 3 Ed. Secs. 129, 130.

Before the adoption of our codes it was held in our own state that the word “feloniously” was essential to all indictments for felony, whether at common or statutory law. Cain vs. State,18 Texas 387. It is now however expressly provided by statute that in an indictment for a felony it is not necessary to use the words “felonious” or “feloniously.” Code Crim. Proc. Art. 428. And even before this provision was incorporated into the code, it has been held that under its provisions it was not indispensable to the validity of an indictment that the word “feloniously” should be used, even for a capital felony. Calvin vs. State, 25 Tex. 789.

It was said in that case : “We think that the whole spirit of our codes authorized the courts to dispose with what the books call ‘terms of art’ in the description of offenses in indictments,and also in every part of the indictment, and that even so distinguished a word as ‘feloniously’ is no longer to be considered as a sine qua non in the administration of justice in this state.”

Like “feloniously” the word “burglariously” is but a term of art [468]*468which, under our statutes is not indispensable to the validity of an indictment for burglary, notwithstanding Mr. Wharton says that the offense of burglary cannot be expressed by any other word or circumvention. Wharton’s Or. L. (8 Ed) Sec. 814.

Under our statute “the offense of burglary is constituted by entering a house by force, threats or frauds at night, or in like manner by entering a house during the day,and remaining concealed therein until night with the intent in either case of committing felony or the crime of theft.” Penal Code Art. 704.

It seems to us that the acts constituting this offense can be expressed and charged “in plain and intelligible words” without using the word “burglariously” and with sufficent certainty to enable the accused to plead the judgment that may be given upon the indictment in bar of any prosecution for the same offense. Code Orim. Proc. Art. 422.

This identical question came before the supreme court of Iowa in the State vs. Short, 54 Iowa 392,when the indictment failed to charge that the breaking and entry was “burglarious,” and it was said : “The statute under which the indictment was found provided, ‘if any person break and enter any dwelling house in the night time with intent to commit a public offense, he shall be deemed guilty of burglary.’ Code Sec. 3891. The breaking and entering with the required intent constitutes the statutory crime. This is clearly charged and the defendant is deemed guilty of burglary because the statute so provides. The material thing is the intent with which the breaking is done. This is sufficiently stated in the indictment.”

In Sullivan vs. State, 13 Tex. Ct. App. 462 it is said : “This (burglary) being a statutory offense, burglariously and feloniously have nopart or lot in the matter.” In substance and effect the same thing had been previously decided in Robertson vs. State, 32 Texas 159. The question is no longer an open one in this state.

As to the objection that the indictment does not allege that entry was made without the free consent of any one besides the occupant authorized to give consent, it was held in Mace vs. State, 9 Tex. Ct. App. 110, that it was “not necessary in an indictment for burglary to allege further (after negativing the consent of the occupant) that the entry was made without the consent of any one authorized to give consent * * * the consent of any other party than the occupant when such other party is claimed to have authority to give con[469]*469sent is purely matter of defense.” In Williams vs. State, 41 Tex. 99, it was held that “it was not even necessary in an indictment of this character to allege the want of consent on the part of the owner or occupant of a house burglariously entered. The charge of an entry with force and with a felonious intent negatives the presumption of consent by the owner or occupant.” In Sullivan’s case supra, it is said : We cannot conceive it possible for a party to burglariously break or enter a house with intent to commit felony or theft with the consent of the owner or occupant; for if there consent the felony eliminated. We are of the opinion that the verdict must not allege want of consent. Insofar as a contradictory doctrine is intimated and held in Brown vs. State, 7 Tex. Ct. App. 619, that case is overruled. See also Summers vs. State, 9 Ct. App. 396 where the same rule is announced'

A more serious question is presented in the last objection we propose to notice, which is that the indictment fails to allege that the property or money was intended to be or was taken from the possesson of any one.

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Related

Cain v. State
18 Tex. 387 (Texas Supreme Court, 1857)
Calvin v. State
25 Tex. 789 (Texas Supreme Court, 1860)
State v. Robertson
32 Tex. 159 (Texas Supreme Court, 1869)
State v. Williams
41 Tex. 98 (Texas Supreme Court, 1874)
Brown v. State
7 Tex. Ct. App. 619 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1880)
Webster v. State
9 Tex. Ct. App. 75 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1880)
Mace v. State
9 Tex. Ct. App. 110 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1880)
Sullivan v. State
13 Tex. Ct. App. 462 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1883)
State v. Short
6 N.W. 584 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1880)

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Bluebook (online)
2 Tex. L. R. 466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reed-v-state-tex-1883.