State v. Dahlquist

115 N.W. 81, 17 N.D. 40, 1908 N.D. LEXIS 16
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 115 N.W. 81 (State v. Dahlquist) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota 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. Dahlquist, 115 N.W. 81, 17 N.D. 40, 1908 N.D. LEXIS 16 (N.D. 1908).

Opinion

Spalding, J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of maintaining a nuisance in violation of the law known as the prohibition law, at Kindred, Cass county, at divers times between June 1, 1906, and August 31st of the same year. On the trial, evidence was submitted of the sale by the defendant of several bottles of -beer and of an analysis by Prof. Ladd of one of the bottles so sold, which Prof. Ladd testified contained 3.78 per cent of alcohol by volume, and 3.1 by weight, and was beer. Several other witnesses testified that thej'- had purchased of defendant, on the premises described, 'beer or malt, and that they were unable to state which but that it tasted like beer, and one testified that the bottle that he [43]*43was served from was labeled “Beer.” No assignment of error is made on this appeal as to the admission of evidence of these witnesses or as to the charge of the court to the jury. The state then introduced the testimony of F. B. Clewer, station agent of the Great Northern Railway Company at Kindred, who testified that he had charge of the freight delivered ait that station, and he produced his office record of freight received during the time in question. This contained entries of dates and descriptions of the goods and signatures of parties to whom they were delivered. Among others contained in this record were various articles described as casks, barrels and cases of beer, some of which were receipted for by the defendant -in person. The witness identified and testified to the genuineness of the defendant’s signature to the receipts. Others were receipted for by one Johnson, the drayman who did the defendant’s draying, and a paper, signed by the defendant, upon a regular form furnished by the railway company for that purpose, authorizing Johnson to receive and receipt for freight coming to the defendant’s address was received in evidence. The record before referred to contained the receipts of Johnson for one case of beer on June 6th, and 21 other consignments on different dates from June 12th to August 31st, from different consignors, in each instance being one or more barrels or casks of beer, all consigned to defendant. This record was received in evidence as Exhibit B; after which a book known as Exhibit D, being a tissue copy book of waybills for freight going out of Kindred, was identified, and its method of use described, and it was received in evidence. This tissue copy book is the local record of freight shipped out, and is made by copying in the letter press waybills sent with the freight, and he testified was the only record kept of outgoing freight. This exhibit showed the merchandise received from the defendant during the month of August, 1906, and upon it is designated the character of the merchandise. The witness testified that he got his information of such character from the shipper, and entered the character or description of the .merchandise upon the waybill, which is copied into the book known as Exhibit D. By shipper, he meant either the shipper himself, or his agent or drayman. He testified that the entries in Exhibit D as to the character of the merchandise were correct according to the information he received, and that the character of the merchandise going out was shown originally by the shipping bill, prepared by the shipper himself, and that, with [44]*44reference to the shipments in question, he received such information from the defendant himself. It appeared that the entries relating to the merchandise in question contained in Exhibits B and D had been made partly by the witness and partly by his clerk, and during part of the time by a relief man sent by the railway company to take his place during his temporary absence. Evidence regarding entries made during this absence was stricken out by the court, and the jury cautioned not to consider it. The witness identified the different entries made by himself and those made by his clerk. The deputy sheriff who made the arrest of the defendant, and who executed a search warrant of the premises in question, testified as to the finding of several bottles marked “Beer” and numerous empty bottles on the premises, together with four barrels and a case either full or partly full of bottles known as beer bottles, and one barrel containing 17 full bottles, one of which barrels was numbered 739, it being the same number attached to one of the barrels described in the record of the railway company’s agent, as consigned by the Heilman Brewing Company. The receipts for freight executed by the defendant and the draymen were objected to on the ground that they were incompetent, hearsay, not the best evidence, and no foundation laid, and, more specifically, because they were secondary evidence, hearsay, and being conclusions written by some person not disclosed by the evidence, and parties not being present to vouch for them, and because no evidence showed they were correctly made or the source of information of the persons making the waybills, and because as evidence they could not be admissible as admissions. Objection was made to the admission of the record of the outgoing articles on the same ground, and because it was not the record required by law, and not kept entirely by the witness. These objections were repeated in various forms, but in substance the same, and, after the witness had concluded, motions to strike out such evidence on the same grounds were denied. The admission of this evidence over objection, and the denial of the motions, form the basis of the defendant’s assignments of error.

1. The first question for determination is whether it was error to admit the testimony of the witness Clewer, and the records of his office, showing the freight received and receipted for by the defendant. The appellant lays great stress upon this not being the official record required by law, being hearsay, and not all in the [45]*45handwriting of the witness, and some of it made when he was not present. Had this record been offered in evidence and received as a book of account, there .might be force to this objection. However, on that point, there is a conflict in authorities, and it is unnecessary on this appeal to determine that question. In our view of the law, this record which contained a description of the articles received and delivered, also the signature of the defendant acknowledging the receipt of the articles specified, and the testimony identifying the record and the defendant’s signature, and describing how it was kept and for what purpose, were clearly competent to show an admission by defendant of the receipt of large quantities of -beer. The state .was attempting to show the receipt by him of beer in such quantities that it could not have been obtained for personal use, and must have been received for sale. Klepfer v. State, 121 Ind. 491, 23 N. E. 287. The defendant did not testify, and he offered no evidence in his own behalf. Had he made a claim that the records misdescribed the articles and that they did not contain beer, he had an opportunity to rebut the admissions, and show that the record which he signed did not state the facts, but in the absence of anything to show the contrary, such receipted record, after being identified, and its use and method explained, furnished at least some evidence that the defendant had received the articles described therein and receipted for by him. We deem it altogether immaterial whether the railway company’s agent himself kept the record and made the descriptive entries, or whether he made none of them.

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155 N.W. 59 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1915)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 N.W. 81, 17 N.D. 40, 1908 N.D. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dahlquist-nd-1908.