State v. Bock

79 N.E. 493, 167 Ind. 559, 1906 Ind. LEXIS 76
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 21, 1906
DocketNo. 20,893
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 79 N.E. 493 (State v. Bock) 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
State v. Bock, 79 N.E. 493, 167 Ind. 559, 1906 Ind. LEXIS 76 (Ind. 1906).

Opinion

Jordan, J.

The State of Indiana, through its prosecuting attorney, commenced this action against appellee on January 3, 1906, by filing in the lower court an affidavit which, omitting the formal parts, is as follows: “That Herman Bock, on June 17, 1905, at said county and State, did then and there transact a certain business, to wit, the selling of malt liquors for the purpose of gain, and did then and there unlawfully sell five gallons of beer to Earl Reid, at and for the price of $3, he, said Herman Bock, not then [561]*561and there having a license to sell spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors under and by virtue of the laws of Indiana, and he, said Earl Reid, not then and there being a retail dealer in such liquors.”

On motion of the defendant the court quashed this affidavit and rendered judgment, discharging the accused. The State appeals, and, under its assignment of errors, calls in question the decision of the court in quashing the affidavit. The affidavit in question is based on the following statutes: Acts 1875 [s. s.], p. 55, §1, as amended by the legislature in 1897 (Acts 1897, p. 253, §7276 Burns 1901), and §2345 Burns 1905, Acts 1905, pp. 584, 745, §661. These sections read as follows:

“7276. It shall he unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, to sell, barter or give away, for any purpose of gain, any spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors without first procuring from the board of commissioners of the county in which such liquor is to be sold, a license as hereinafter provided; nor shall any person, without having first procured such license, sell or barter any intoxicating liquor to be drunk, or suffered to he drunk, in his house, outhouse, yard, garden, or the appurtenances thereto belonging.”
“2345. Whoever, by himself or agent, transacts any business or does any act without a license therefor, when such license is required by any law of this State, shall, on conviction, be fined not less than $5 nor more than $200.” Section 7276, supra, prior to its amendment, was section one of the liquor license law of 1875, which is entitled: “An act to regulate and license the sale of spirituous, vinous and malt and other intoxicating liquors,” etc. (Acts 1875 [s. s.], p. 55). Section one, together with sections five and seven of the latter act, was amended by the act of 1897, supra, and the three sections as amended now constitute §§7276, 7281, 7283 Burns 1901. Section one of the act of 1875, as originally enacted, made it unlawful “for any [562]*562person or persons to directly or indirectly sell, barter or give away for any purpose of gain, any spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, in less quantities than a quart at a time, without first procuring, from the board of commissioners of the county in which such liquor or liquors are to be sold, a license,” as thereinafter provided. Under the section as now amended the clause “in less quantities than a quart at a time” is omitted. Section seven of the statute of 1875 as amended reads as follows: “Upon the' execution of the bond required in the fourth section of this act, being §5315 of the revised statutes of 1881, the presentation of the order of the board of commissioners, granting him license, and the county treasurer’s receipt for $100, the county auditor shall issue a license to the applicant for the sale of such liquors as he applied for, with the privilege of permitting the same to be drunk on the premises as stated in the aforesaid notice, which license shall specify the name of the applicant, the place of sale, and the period of time for which such license is granted: Provided, that none of the provisions of this act shall apply to any person engaged in business as a wholesale dealer, who does not sell in less quantities than five gallons at a time.” (Our italics.)

1. Section twelve of the act of 1875 (§7285 Burns 1901) provides the penalty which shall be inflicted against any person not licensed according to the provisions of the act who sells intoxicating liquors in less quantities than a quart at a time, or who sells such liquors in any quantity to be drunk on the premises where sold. This section was not changed by the amendment of 1897. Therefore, we held in Daniels v. State (1898), 150 Ind. 348, that by the act of 1875 as amended no penalty was prescribed for selling without a license intoxicating liquors in a quantity of a quart or over at a time, but that the punishment for such a sale was an infliction of the penalty provided by §2186 Burns 1901, §2090 R. S. 1881. This same [563]*563section, with a slight or immaterial change, was reenacted by the legislature of 1905, and is §2345, supra.

2. 3. Counsel for the State insist that this appeal presents a novel question. It is their contention that the person contemplated or intended by the legislature in the proviso in section seven as amended—which declares “that none of the provisions of this act shall apply to any person engaged in business as a wholesale dealer, who does not sell in less quantities than five gallons at a time”—was a bona fide wholesale dealer in all that that term implies, and was not any person who may choose to call himself a wholesale dealer and sell intoxicating liquors, to consumers in lots of five gallons at a time. They assert that it was evidently the intention of the legislature in framing this statute to require every person who sold any amount of liquor to a consumer to have a license, excepting only a person engaged in business as a wholesale dealer. They contend that a person is not a wholesale dealer within the meaning of this law because he sells five gallons at a time to a consumer, but, as they insist, “he must be a bona fide wholesale dealer, engaged in selling to retailers, and then he, under the law, can as such wholesaler sell not less than five gallons at a time.” As hereinafter more fully shown, the purpose and object of the liquor law of 1875, as originally enacted, was to regulate and restrict the traffic in intoxicating liquors to consumers and had no application to sales made by a wholesale dealer to retailers or jobbers. As an answer to the above contention of counsel for the State, it may be said that, if the proviso in section seven as amended contemplates only sales of intoxicating liquors of the quantity specified by a wholesale dealer to a retailer and does not apply or embrace sales made by a wholesaler to consumers, then the proviso would not be germane to or within the purview of the statute amended, and therefore would be of no avail. There aré no grounds to support counsel’s insistence.

[564]*5644. Counsel for appellee, in addition to the argument to establish the insufficiency of the affidavit, assail the validity of the amendatory act of 1897, supra. It is insisted that it is violative of §1, article 14, of the federal Constitution, and §23 of our bill of rights (Const., Art. 1, §23). Under the construction which this court accorded-the amendatory act in question in Daniels v. State, supra, the constitutional validity thereof was, over the same objections, sustained, and, as we still adhere to that construction, it follows that the question in regard to the validity of this law may be dismissed without further consideration.

5.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 N.E. 493, 167 Ind. 559, 1906 Ind. LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bock-ind-1906.