State v. Bockstruck

38 S.W. 317, 136 Mo. 335, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 331
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 15, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by68 cases

This text of 38 S.W. 317 (State v. Bockstruck) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bockstruck, 38 S.W. 317, 136 Mo. 335, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 331 (Mo. 1896).

Opinion

Shekwoob, J.'

1. The evidence already detailed was sufficient to authorize a conviction of defendant under the charge contained in the information; and the fact that the sale in question was made by a young clerk of defendant’s, made out against defendant a prima facie case, inasmuch as the sale occurred in defendant’s store, in apparently the ordinary course of business. State v. McCance, 110 Mo. 398. If the sale was made against the order of the owner, this was matter of defense. Ibid.; State v. Baker, 71 Mo. 475.

2. Nor is the conclusion just announced as to the sufficiency of the evidence at all affected by the fact relied on by the defendant’s counsel that the information does not “charge nor the proof show what was combined with the animal fat to give it a yellow color,” nor because the information does not allege nor the proof show that such substance thus combined was either “annatto or a compound of the same.”

There are several reasons which support this view:

First, it was entirely competent for the information to allege that certain substances were “also compounded with other substances which are to the informant unknown, for the purpose and with the effect of imparting thereto a yellow color,” etc. The rule ejusclem generis urged for the defense, is wholly inapplicable to a statutory section worded like section 2. The words which immediately follow “any annatto or com[351]*351pound of the same” effectually take this clause of the section out of the operation of the rule announced in Schuehmann's case, 133 Mo. Ill, and bring it within the rule laid down in St. Louis v. Bowler, 94 Mo. 630.

And doubtless the words immediately succeeding those just quoted were inserted for the express purpose of avoiding the necessity of proving just what substance or substances were used to impart to the mixture a yellow color,, etc. Just so the substance used had that “effect," it was entirely immaterial under the statute what substance was used. This point being thus determined supports the sufficiency of the information in this regard and of course, the evidence offered in support of the questioned allegation.

3. But it is urged that the information is insufficient in another respect, to wit: That it does not negative the proviso contained in section 2.

The latter clause of that section just below that proviso is the one on which the information is bottomed. This is a distinct and independent clause, and the rule in such cases is that where an affirmative offense will appear without reference to the proviso or exception, there such proviso or exception need not be negatived in the indictment or information. In other words, if the ingredients constituting the offense are capable of exact definition without reference to the exception or proviso, there such reference may with safety be omitted, ■ since such matter contained in the exception, etc., is not descriptive of the offense, but only matter of defense to be brought forward by the accused. 1 Bishop, Crim. Proc. [3 Ed.], secs. 632-636; U. S. v. Cook, 17 Wall. 168; State v. Buford, 10 Mo. 704; State v. Shiflett, 20 Mo. 417; State v. Cox, 32 Mo. 566; State v. Sutton, 24 Mo. 377; State v. Meek, 70 Mo. 355; State v. O'Brien, 74 Mo. 549.

Elsewhere the same rule finds expression to the [352]*352effect that where the statute creates a general offense, an offense not limited to a particular class of persons or conditions; where it is intended to impose the stamp of criminality on an entire class of actions, and not upon only such actions as are committed by particular persons or in a particular way; in such case the mere excusatory defense is not required to be negatived by the written accusation. Wharton, Crim. PI. & Prac. [9 Ed.], sec. 241.

And it is well settled in this state also, and on like reasoning, that it is needless to negative exceptions contained in a subsequent section to that which defines the offense. State v. O’Gorman, 68 Mo. 179; State v. Doepke, Ibid., 208; State v. Jaques, Ibid. 261.

So that counsel’s contention that the information should have negatived the exception in section. 5 of the act before us can not prevail. Indeed it would be without parallel in criminal pleading to require the accusation based on a section defining one offense, to negative an exception in another and subsequent section which section creates another and distinct offense.

4. It is claimed on behalf of defendant that the act under review is violative of several constitutional provisions, which will now be noticed.

Section 28 of article 4 of our constitution forbids that any bill shall “contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title.”

In State ex rel. v. Mead, 71 Mo. 266, in considering this constitutional provision it was ruled that the title of an act “concerning popular elections” was a sufficient compliance with the constitutional mandate aforesaid, and a sufficient indicator of what the body of the act contained, notwithstanding one of the sections of the act authorized the governor to fill vacancies occurring in elective offices by temporary appointments, such [353]*353power thus conferred on the governor being regarded as germane to the subject treated of in the title.

See, also, St. Louis v. Weitzel, 130 Mo. loc. cit. 614 et seq., where a charter provision identical in language with the constitutional provision above noticed, was discussed and a like ruling applied.

In New Jersey under a similar constitutional provision, an act entitled, “an act relating to the assessment and revision of taxes in cities of this state,” was held not to infract the constitutional provision. in question notwithstanding the body of the act related to the mode of appointing the members of boards of assessment and revision in cases of taxation, and that the title sufficiently expressed the subject. State ex rel. v. Hammer, 42 N. J. L. 438.

Treating of this topic, Bishop tersely says: “The title need indicate the subject only in a general way, without entering into details; and all auxiliary provisions properly attaching to it, and constituting with it one whole, may be embraced within the enactment.” Statutory Crimes [2 Ed.], sec. 36a.

In consequence of this view section 5 of the act must be regarded as sufficiently indicated by the title of the act, and as not transgressing constitutional limitations.

' But it is not perceived that defendant has any apparent concern in section 5, since that section relates to an entirely different offense.

Now nothing is better settled than that a part of a law may be declared constitutionally invalid, and yet another portion properly separable therefrom, and therefore unexceptionable in every particular. This may be so even though the sound and unsound are in one section together. This is always the rule unless the parts sound and unsound are so mutually related, [354]*354so blended together, as to constitute an entirety, making it evident that unless the act be carried into effect as a whole, it could not have received the legislative sanction. Bishop, Stat. Crim., sec. 34, and cases cited.

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Bluebook (online)
38 S.W. 317, 136 Mo. 335, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 331, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bockstruck-mo-1896.