State v. Chastian

27 S.E. 2, 49 S.C. 171, 1897 S.C. LEXIS 144
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedApril 7, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 27 S.E. 2 (State v. Chastian) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Chastian, 27 S.E. 2, 49 S.C. 171, 1897 S.C. LEXIS 144 (S.C. 1897).

Opinion

The first opinion was delivered by

Mr. Chief Justice McIver.

Under an indictment charging that the defendant, on the 15th day of June, 1896, “did unlawfully store and keep in possession, within this State, certain alcoholic contraband liquor, to wit: about two and one-half gallons of corn whiskey, which is used as a beverage, against the form of the act,” &c., the defendant was found guilty, and sentenced “to pay a fine of $100, or be held to labor upon the public works of Oconee County for a period of three months, or be confined in the State penitentiary, at hard labor, for a period of three months.” From this judgment defendant appeals, upon the following grounds: “I. Because his Honor erred in charging the jury as follows: ‘The question is, did he have liquor there, keeping it there without any stamps on it? If so, he must show that he either bought it through the regular channel, the dispensary, or that he obtained from the state commissioner the proper stamps to be put on it;’ and should have charged the jury instead thereof that the keeping of a small quantity of liquor by a person in his dwelling house, for his own personal use, and not to be bartered, sold or given away, does not constitute a crime, which is the subject of indictment. [173]*173II. That it is only the storing or keeping in,, possession of alcoholic liquor for some unlawful use or purpose which is made an indictable offense by the statute, and his Honor erred in not so holding.”

It appears from the testimony of the state constables, who were examined as witnesses for the State, that they found in the dwelling house of the defendant, while he was absent therefrom, a three-gallon jug, containing about two gallons of corn whiskey, as they estimated, which they seized and shipped to the state commissioner, because there were no marks or stamps upon it obtained from the state commissioner. There was no testimony tending to show that defendant had the whiskey for sale or any other unlawful purpose, or that defendant ever had sold or disposed of any whiskey. On the contrary, the defendant testified that he obtained from a man, who said it came from Rabun, a gallon of whiskey, about three weeks before the seizure, for his own personal use, and for no other purpose, because he was in bad health and needed it; that he never sold any whiskey, and he could not tell how much of the whiskey he had used before the seizure. He admitted that the whiskey had not been bought from any dispensary, and that it had no stamps upon it. The charge of the Circuit Judge, which is fully set out in the “Case,” and should be incorporated by the reporter in his report of the case, w7as, in substance, as follows: “The indictment is for storing and keeping in possession alcoholic liquors. * * * If a man undertakes to keep liquor, it must have the stamp of the state commissioner. * * * The question is, did he have liquor there, keeping it there without any stamps on it? If so, he must show that he had bought it through the regular channel, the dispensary, or that he obtained from the state commissioner the proper stamps to put on it. The law provides how he shall do it. The law prevents this storing and keeping in possession of liquors, shows how it may be kept safely and without any trouble. And if a man is not minded to put himself to that trouble, then he [174]*174will have to look .out for the consequences.” The Circuit Judge manifestly, in charging the jury, proceeded upon the theory that it is an indictable offense for a person to have in his possession alcoholic liquors, even for his own use, unless the required stamps are upon it, or rather upon the vessel containing it. In the first place, the indictment does not charge any such offense, for it does not charge that alcoholic liquors were found in the possession of the defendant without the requisite stamps. On the contrary, the charge in- the indictment, as we have seen, is that the defendant “did unlawfully store and keep in possession, within this State, certain, alcoholic contraband liquor;” and, in the second place, a careful examination of the act of 6th March, 1896 (22 Stat., 128), commonly called the dispensary law, under which this prosecution was instituted, fails to disclose any provision therein making it an indictable offense for a person to have in his possession alcoholic liquors without the stamps -of the state commissioner. There are several provisions in that act making such liquors liable to seizure and forfeiture, but none declaring that the mere fact that a person is found in possession of alcoholic liquors without stamps shall constitute a criminal offense. The sections of the act which, it is contended, sustain this prosecution are the first, the twenty-fifth, the twenty-sixth, and the thirty-fifth, and these sections will be considered in their order. The first section reads as follows: “That the manufacture, sale, barter or exchange, receipt or acceptance, for unlawful use, delivery, storing, and keeping in possession, within this State, of any spirituous, malt, vinous, fermented, brewed (whether lager or rice beer) or other liquor, any compound or mixture thereof, by whatever name called or known, which contains alcohol, and is used as a beverage, by any person, firm or corporation; the transportation, removal, the taking from the depot or other place by consignee or other person, or the payment of freight or express or other charges by any person, firm, association or corporation upon any spirituous, [175]*175malt, vinous, fermented, brewed (whether lager, rice or other beer) or other liquor, or any compound or mixture thereof, by whatever name called or known, which contains alcohol, and is used as a beverage, except as is hereinafter provided, is hereby prohibited, under a penalty of not less than three (3) nor more than twelve (12) months at hard labor in the State penitentiary, or pay a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500, or both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the Court, for each offense. All such liquors, except when bought of a State officer authorized to sell the same, or in possession of one, and having been duly tested by the chemist of the South Carolina College and found to be chemically pure, are declared to be contraband and against the morals, good health, and safety of the State; and all alcoholic liquors in this State, and not having been tested by the chemist of the South Carolina College and found to be chemically pure, are hereby declared to be of a poisonous and detrimental character, and their use and consumption as a beverage are against the morals, good health, and safety of the State, and all such liquors may be seized wherever found, without a warrant, and turned over to the state commissioner.” It will be observed that this section is divided into two distinct and different parts, manifestly designed to effect two distinct and different purposes. The first part, embraced in the first sentence, was designed to make it a penal offense, punishable as therein prescribed, for any person to do any of the acts therein forbidden;. while the second part, embraced in the second sentence, separated by a period from the first sentence, was clearly designed to render the liquors therein referred to liable to seizure, without a warrant, and to forfeiture. In other words, the first sentence affects persons only, and not property, while the second sentence affects property only, and not persons. It is clear, therefore, that, in this case, our attention must be confined to the first sentence, as no question as to the seizure or forfeiture of property is here involved. The first sentence, however, does [176]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 S.E. 2, 49 S.C. 171, 1897 S.C. LEXIS 144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-chastian-sc-1897.