State v. Arluno

268 N.W. 179, 222 Iowa 1
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 19, 1936
DocketNo. 43488.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 268 N.W. 179 (State v. Arluno) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Arluno, 268 N.W. 179, 222 Iowa 1 (iowa 1936).

Opinion

ICintzinger, J.

Defendant was accused by a county attorney’s information of the crime of maintaining a liquor nuisance by keeping a place in Appanoose county, Iowa, on or about April 12, 1935, in which he unlawfully possessed and kept with intent to sell, use, or give away, intoxicating liquors contrary to the provisions of section 54, chapter 24, 45th General Assembly, Extra Session (Code 1935, section 1921-Í61). He plead not guilty to the offense charged, and in November, 1935, the case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict of guilty. At the close of the evidence, defendant filed a motion for a directed verdict, which was overruled. Thereupon, he filed a motion for a new trial, which was also overruled; judgment was pronounced and defendant was fined $300, from which he appeals.

The evidence shows without dispute that during the week prior to April 12, 1935, the constable of Centerville, Iowa, *3 placed the defendant’s home, located in the outskirts of Center-ville, in Appanoose county, Iowa, under observation. The officer observed that many ears came to defendant’s home during that time, and in the evenings many persons made many trips between defendant’s house and garage, about 40 feet away. On the afternoon of April 12, 1935, the Chief of police of Center-ville, the constable, and several other officers, raided defendant’s place, and made a search of his home and garage, in defendant’s presence. The searching party found on the premises two bottles of wine, 11 full bottles of intoxicating liquor bearing no State stamps, and 8 or 10 eases of empty bottles, most of them bearing whiskey and gin labels, the labels on some of the bottles being washed off. The empty whiskey bottles were found underneath the house. The liquor was found in a specially constructed receptacle or “cache” under the cement floor of the garage with a 6 or 7 inch lid on the top, to which was attached a wire or staple to remove the lid. This receptacle was a 40 or 50 gallon steel drum, in which the liquor was found. The officers found the opening by raking straw from around the top. They also found another opening constructed entirely of cement.

The defendant attempts to explain the presence of the liquor by stating that in October, 1934, he had been running a beer joint called the “Caseloma” in Unionville, Missouri, where he was legally authorized to buy and sell liquor; that he bought all of the liquor found on his premises in Iowa at a drug store in Unionville, Missouri, while he was conducting the beer joint at that place.

■ He further testified that he became ill after running the “Caseloma” for about two months, and decided to return to his former home at the outskirts of Centerville, Iowa; that his employee moved this liquor with the balance of his property when he moved to Iowa; that when the liquor was brought to his place in Iowa, it was put in the place where it was found in the garage, because he expected to return to Missouri in a few months. He says the emply bottles also came from Missouri.

The foregoing is the substance of all the evidence offered in the case.

While there is no positive evidence of any sales having been made in Iowa, the defendant, who took the witness stand in his own behalf, did not deny it; neither did he deny any intention to sell any of the liquor in Iowa. The record shows without con *4 flict that the liquor found in the cache on his premises was intoxicating, and that the bottles contained no Iowa State liquor seals, and that it was transported into Iowa by him from Missouri.

I. One of the grounds urged for a reversal is that the State failed to show that defendant was guilty of any intent to sell intoxicating liquor contrary to the provisions of section 54, ■chapter 24, of the 45th General Assembly, Extra Session, known as the Iowa Liquor Control Act.

Appellant contends the evidence was insufficient to establish any intent by the defendant 'to use, sell, keep or give away liquor “contrary to the Iowa Liquor Act,” and that the mere possession of liquor does not make out a prima facie case, as contemplated by section 1966-al, Code of Iowa 1935, which provides that:

“In all actions * * * under the provisions of this title, the finding of intoxicating liquors * * * in the possession of or under the control of any person, under and by authority of a search warrant * * *, and which shall have been finally adjudicated and declared forfeited by the court, shall be prima facie evidence, * # * of maintaining a nuisance * * * by such person.”

It is strenuously urged that because the liquor, found in the possession of the defendant, was not “finally adjudicated and declared forfeited” by the court, the mere possession of it does not made out a prima facie case; and that the evidence introduced was not competent or sufficient to establish his guilt of the crime charged.

We have held, however, that the absence of an adjudication and declaration of forfeiture of the liquor, is not a condition precedent to the introduction of evidence tending to show a violation of the liquor law. This question was directly passed upon in State v. Boever, 203 Iowa 86, 210 N. W. 571, 572, where the same contention was made as in the case at bar. In that case, loe. cit. 88, we said:

“It is contended by the appellant that the seized liquor was not competent evidence and admissible against him, for the reason that said liquor had not been adjudicated to be intoxicating liquor and declared forfeited by the court issuing the search warrant. This claim is untenable. It is true that, under the provisions of chapter 42, acts of the Forty-first General As *5 sembly, the finding of intoxicating liquor in the possession of or under the control of any person, under and by authority of a search warrant, ‘and which shall have been finally adjudicated and declared forfeited by the court, shall be prima facie evidence, in any action, * * *’ under the provisions of Title VI of the Code * * *. This statute provides a rule of evidence relating to the effect of the possession of liquor that has been seized and adjudicated as intoxicating, but it does not contemplate that the facts and circumsta/nces with reference to the execution of a search warrant, in the absence of an adjudication and forfeiture, shall not be admissible in a criminal prosecution. In other words, an adjudication and forfeiture is not a condition precedent to the introduction of testimony in a criminal case involving the violation of the prohibitory liquor law.” (Italics ours.)

Under the rule announced in the foregoing and other cases, it is the settled law in this state that evidence similar to that introduced in this case is competent on the question of establishing defendant’s intent, and sufficient to make that question one for the jury. State v. Fountain, 183 Iowa 1159, 168 N. W. 285; State v. Butler, 186 Iowa 1247, 173 N. W. 239; State v. Shackleford, 198 Iowa 752, 200 N. W. 192; State v. Olson, 200 Iowa 660, 204 N. W. 278; State v. Boever, 203 Iowa 86, 210 N. W. 571; State v. Salisbury, 209 Iowa 139, 227 N. W. 589; State v. Campbell, 209 Iowa 519, 228 N. W. 22; State v. Bruns, 211 Iowa 826, 232 N. W. 684; State v. Harrington, 220 Iowa 1116, 264 N. W. 24.

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Bluebook (online)
268 N.W. 179, 222 Iowa 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-arluno-iowa-1936.