State v. Burns

126 N.W. 572, 25 S.D. 364, 1910 S.D. LEXIS 72
South Dakota Supreme Court·Decided April 26, 1910·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

McCOY, J.

The appellant, M. J. Burns, and one Ray Burns, as defendants, were jointly informed against and charged as registered pharmacists with having violated the laws of this state in relation to the sale of intoxicating liquors. The trial resulted in the conviction of M. J. Burns, appellant; the prosecution having dismissed the cause as to the defendant Ray Burns. Motion for new trial was made by M. J. Burns and overruled, and he has brought the cause before this court on appeal.

There are but two questions involved:

First. Appellant contends that he was charged with one offense and convicted of another. The information, in substance, charged that defendants, M. J. Burns and Ray Burns, were co-partnership members of -the firm of Burns Bros., owners of a pharmacy within the corporate limits of the town of Pierpont, Day county; that an election was held in said Pierpont on the question of “shall intoxicating liquors be sold at retail,” and that [366] a majority of the electors decided against the sale of such liquors; that the defendants as such pharmacists willfully and unlawfully sold to one Rosenlund intoxicating liquor, to wit, three quarts of alcohol and one quart of whiskey, to be drank as a beverage, and which alcohol and whiskey were then and there sold by defendants to- said Ro-selund without a doctor’s prescription therefor, and defendants not having then and there a license to sell intoxicating liquors at retail to be used as a beverage, and said liquors not having been then and there sold for medicinal, mechanical, scientific, or sacramental purposes. This information was evidently drawn under section 2860, Pol. Code, as amended by 'chapter 176, Laws 1907. It is clear that this information charges two separate and distinct offenses, viz., unlawful selling of intoxicating liquors by a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription within an incorporated town that has voted against such sale, and unlawful selling of intoxicating liquors by a pharmacist to be used as a beverage. The appellant did not demur or move to quash such information on the ground of duplicity, and neither did appellant move the court to require the state to elect on which one of these two- offenses charged in the information the state would seek a -conviction. Under these circumstances, we are of the opinion that appellant waived the question of the duplicity of the information, and, if the evidence was sufficient to sustain a conviction for either offense charged, -the defendant could not be heard to complain. Bishop, Crim. Pro. §§ 436-448. We are of the opinion that there was sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction for unlawful selling as a beverage.

Appellant’s second contention is that the court erred in overruling proper objections to the introduction in evidence of the paper marked “Exhibit 4,” which is as follows:

“Mr. Alx Rosenlund, Pierpon-t, S'. D.
“To Burns Bros......................................Dr.
1908.
Mar. 3, Rx. Aleo....................................$1.25
Mar. 8, Rx. Aloo.................................... 1.25
Mar. 10, Rx. Aleo.................................... 1.25
“Pd. 5-23-08.
$4.50
“Burns Bros.”

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State v. Burns, 126 N.W. 572, 25 S.D. 364, 1910 S.D. LEXIS 72 (S.D. 1910).

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