State v. Cunningham

58 So. 558, 130 La. 749, 1912 La. LEXIS 928
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 22, 1912
DocketNo. 19,142
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 58 So. 558 (State v. Cunningham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cunningham, 58 So. 558, 130 La. 749, 1912 La. LEXIS 928 (La. 1912).

Opinion

MONROE, J.

It was charged against the defendants, J. P. Cunningham and E. Bitters, that on August 9, 1911, they “unlawfully did keep a grog and tippling shop, and did retail spirituous and intoxicating liquors, to wit, beer and whisky, without previously obtaining a license from the police jury of Caddo parish or the municipal authorities of the city of Shreveport.” And, a similar offense having been charged in a separate proceeding as committed on August 15, 1911, the two prosecutions, involving as they do the same issues of fact and law, were consolidated. After issue joined and trial, defendants were convicted and sentenced for the one offense to pay each a fine of $350 and to serve 90 days on the public roads, and 90 days additional in default of payment of the fines, and for the other offense to pay each a fine of $100 and costs, and in default of payment of the fines to serve 30 days on the public roads. Prom the sentence first mentioned, they prosecute this appeal and present their case by means of certain bills of exception which will be considered, seriatim, to wit:

[1] Bill No. 1. That after defendants had examined several witnesses introduced for the purpose of impeaching the character for veracity of Warren, the principal witness for the state, the state called Daniels, a policeman, and S. O. Fullilove, commissioner of public safety, who were allowed to testify:

“That the state had had several witnesses summoned and brought from the former home of said witness Warren for the purpose of sustaining his reputation for truth and veracity, and had kept said witnesses here for several days for said purpose, to which evidence counsel for the defendants objected on the ground that it was irrelevant and that it was not permissible to sustain the character for truth and veracity of said witness Warren by such species of evidence. * * * And, further, the witness Daniels, who testified that he had not lived in the neighborhood where said witness Warren resided for over 10 years, but had heard the character and reputation of said Warren discussed by persons from said neighborhood, was permitted * * * to testify that the character of said Warren for truth and veracity was good in said neighborhood” —to which ruling defendants objected and reserved their bill.

The statement per curiam is:

“That the testimony of Daniels and Fullilove, to the effect that the state had witnesses present at one time for the purpose of sustaining the credibility of state’s witness Warren, was admitted, for what it was worth, to negative the effect that no effort was made to counteract the testimony of the witness, introduced by the defendant, to impeach the testimony of the witness Warren, and that the objection of the defendant went simply to the effect of the testimony objected to and not to its admissibility., and that the testimony of the witness Daniels as to his knowledge of the witness Warren and his reputation for truth and veracity went to the worth of the testimony and not to its admissibility.”

[2] It does not appear that Daniels or Fullilove offered or were asked to say what testimony the witnesses whom the state had brought from Warren’s home would have given if they had been held and put on the stand, and we can discover no prejudice to any rights of the defendants in the making known to the judge, sitting without a jury and admitting the testimony only for that purpose, the fact that the state had secured the presence of such witnesses, but for reasons which may or may not have been given had allowed them to return to their homes. Such knowledge may have served to acquit the state of laches, but' it could have had no effect in determining the question of the credibility of Warren, in support of whose general reputation in that respect the witnesses were said to have been summoned. As to the testimony of Daniels upon that subject, his qualification as a witness depended, not upon his residence .in the community in which Warren lived,- but upon -his [753]*753knowledge of Warren’s general reputation for truth and veracity in that community, and though such knowledge is ordinarily more likely to he acquired by one who himself lives in the community, nevertheless one not so living may keep himself better informed than many of the residents. We therefore find no reversible error in the ruling complained of.

[3] Bill No. 2. That Warren to whom the beer in question is said to have been sold was authorized by the authorities of the city of Shreveport to open and conduct a retail liquor shop for the purpose of obtaining evidence of the sale of liquor by others, and,having obtained an internal revenue license from the United States, was a retail dealer within the intendment of the law; that a sale to him of beer by the manufacturer in the original unbroken package of more than five gallons was therefore a sale at wholesale, and not at retail; the wholesale dealer in such case, not being concerned with the inquiry whether the purchaser buys for resale or not, and not being considered a retail dealer because such purchaser may not have obtained a retailer’s license.

“That, as to the defendant Cunningham, the indictment and bill of particulars having charged that the sale alleged to have been made by him was so made by him in person, he cannot be convicted on proof that it was made by another as his or his company’s employé or agent, * * * and evidence that he made a sale by or through' another as agent or employé is not admissible, under the charge against him, except as disproving that he made the sale as alleged in person.”

It appears from the statement per curiam that Caddo is a parish in which, as a result of a vote of the people, the sale of intoxicating liquor is prohibited agreeably to the provisions of Act No. 221 of 1902, amending and re-enacting sections 1211 and 2778 of the Revised Statutes, and authorizing the police juries and municipal authorities “to make such rules and regulations for the sale or the prohibition of the sale, of intoxicating liquors as they may deem advisable, and to grant or withhold licenses from drinking houses and shops * * * as a majority of the legal voters may determine by ballot.”

This act is supplemented by act 66 of 1902, p. 93, amending and re-enacting section 910, R. S., and providing that:

“Whoever shall keep a grog or tippling shop, or retail spirituous or intoxicating liquors without previously obtaining a license, * * * on conviction shall be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500, and, in default of payment of fine and costs, shall be imprisoned for a term within the discretion of the court, or shall suffer fine and imprisonment as the court may deem proper. * * * ”

And the legislation thus referred to is further supplemented by act No. 46 of 1906, p. 61, which provides:

“That it shall be unlawful for any person, within the limits of any village, town, city, ward, or parish of this state, in which the retailing of spirituous or intoxicating liquors is prohibited, to seek, solicit, or receive orders from anjr one for the purchase of spirituous or intoxicating liquors.” And there is a penalty of fine or imprisonment, or both, imposed for violation of the prohibition.

And finally we have act No. 176 of 1908, p. 236 (known as the “Gay-Shattuck Law”),, which is, “An act”—

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Related

State v. Cunningham
58 So. 563 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
58 So. 558, 130 La. 749, 1912 La. LEXIS 928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cunningham-la-1912.