Skinner v. State

22 N.E. 115, 120 Ind. 127, 1889 Ind. LEXIS 369
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 25, 1889
DocketNo. 15,043
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 22 N.E. 115 (Skinner 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
Skinner v. State, 22 N.E. 115, 120 Ind. 127, 1889 Ind. LEXIS 369 (Ind. 1889).

Opinion

Cobbey, J.

This was a prosecution by the State against the appellant under section 2097, R. S. 1881, for keeping a disorderly liquor shop.

That section provides that Whoever keeps a place where intoxicating liquors are sold, bartered, given awa-y, or suffered to be drunk in a disorderly manner, to the annoyance or injury of any part of the citizens of this State, shall be fined, for every day the same is so kept, not more than one hundred dollars nor less than ten dollars.”

The indictment charges that the appellant, Allen Skinner, on the 1st day of June, A. D. 1888, and continuously thereafter to the day of making this indictment, at the county and State aforesaid, did then and'there unlawfully keep a place, to wit, a saloon where intoxicating liquors were sold, bartered and given away, and suffered to be drunk in a disorderly manner, and did then and there keep said saloon in a disorderly manner, by then and there unlawfully permitting and suffering divers persons, on week days and Sundays, by day and by night, to congregate in and about said saloon, and then and there make a great noise by yelling, quarreling, boister[129]*129ous talking, fighting, swearing, and drunken rows, to the annoyance and injury of part of the citizens of said State, etc. The indictment was filed on the 8th day of September, 1888.

Upon a plea of not guilty, the cause was submitted to a jury, who returned a verdict of guilty, assessing a fine against the appellant.

Over a motion for a new trial and a motion in arrest of judgment, the court rendex'ed judgment on the verdict.

The errors assigned are :

1st. That the facts stated in the indictment do not constitute a public offence.

2d. That the court erred in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment.

3d. That the court eiwed in overruling the motion of appellant for a new trial.

Under the first and second assignments of error-, it is contended by the appellant that the indictment above set out is defective, in failing to aver that the saloon therein named was kept in any public place, or near any public highway, in any city, town or village, or that any person resided in the vicinity, or were in the habit of passing near it, and in support of his contention cites the case of Mains v. State, 42 Ind. 327.

On the other hand, it is contended by the appellee that there is a distinction between the case at bar and the case of Mains v. State, supra, in this, that the acts named in the statute under consideration constitute the offence charged, and that hence it is sufficient to follow the language of the statute, while in the case of Mains v. State, supra, the of-fence sought to be charged was that of maintaining a public nuisance, an offence known to the common law, and hence it was necessary to aver facts which would have constituted a nuisance under the common law definition of that crime.

The general rule is, that an indictment describing the of-fence in the language used by the statute in defining it is [130]*130sufficient. State v. Bougher, 3 Blackf. 307 ; Pelts v. State, 3 Blackf. 28; Marble v. State, 13 Ind. 362; Malone v. State, 14 Ind. 219 ; Stuckmyer v. State, 29 Ind. 20; Shinn v. State, 68 Ind. 423; State v. Allisbach, 69 Ind. 50 : Howard v. State, 87 Ind. 68; Toops v. State, 92 Ind. 13; State v. Miller, 98 Ind. 70; State v. Berdetta, 73 Ind. 185.

Some of the exceptions are where the statute creating the offence charged contains language which embraces acts evidently not intended to be made criminal, and cases where it was the evident intention of the Legislature that reference should be had to the common law for a complete definition of the offence declared by the statute. Schmidt v. State, 78 Ind. 41; Moore Crim. Law, section 171; Anderson v. State, 7 Ohio, 607 ; Mains v. State, supra.

The case of Mains v. State, supra, falls within the latter exception.

The statute under consideration does, in our opinion, create and fully define the offence for which the appellant was prosecuted. It declares that whoever keeps a place where intoxicating liquors are sold, bartered, given away, or suffered to be drunk in a disorderly manner, to the annoyance or injury of any part of the citizens of this State, shall be fined, etc. In such case we think it sufficient, in charging the violation of such statute, to follow the language of the Legislature in defining the offence. We think the indictment above set out charges a public offence, and that the court did not err in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment.

The appellant assigned in the court below nineteen reasons for a new trial, but we shall consider those only which he lias seen fit to discuss in his able brief in the cause.

It is earnestly insisted that the evidence in the cause does not tend to support the verdict of the jury, and it is urged in support of this contention that there is no evidence that any of the persons claiming to have been disturbed by the dis[131]*131orderly manner in which the saloon named in the indictment was kept were citizens of the State of Indiana.

It appears from the evidence in the cause that the saloon in question is located on a public street in the town of Marion, in Grant county, Indiana.

Many of those claiming to have been disturbed by the disorderly manner in which the saloon was kept testified that they resided in said town and near the saloon, but none of them testified in direct terms that they were citizens of the State. The question is, was this evidence sufficient to authorize the jury to infer that these persons were citizens?

Webster defines citizen: 1. “One who enjoys the freedom and privileges of a city, as distinguished from a foreigner, or one not entitled to its franchises.” 2. “An inhabitant in any city, town, or place.”

It was evidently the intention of the Legislature to protect those residing in the State from the annoyances incident to the keeping of a disorderly saloon, and to compel those engaged in the business of retailing intoxicating liquors to keep theirplaees ofbusiness in an orderly manner. Havingthatobject in view, it is reasonable to suppose that when it used the word “ citizen ” it used it with reference to the second definition of that word as given by Mr. Webster.

We think the jury, under all the evidence in the.cause, might well have inferred that those claiming that they had been disturbed by the manner in which appellant kept his saloon were citizens of the State. We think the evidence tends to support the verdict of the jury.

During the progress of the trial various items of evidence were admitted over the objection of the appellant, but after a careful examination of such evidence we do not think it subject to the objections urged against it. It had some bearing upon the main question under consideration, tending to show the manner in which the appellant conducted his business, and the means of knowledge possessed by some of the [132]*132witnesses produced by the appellant, and was, in our opinion, for these reasons admissible.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
22 N.E. 115, 120 Ind. 127, 1889 Ind. LEXIS 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skinner-v-state-ind-1889.