State v. Hafle

367 N.E.2d 1226, 52 Ohio App. 2d 9, 6 Ohio Op. 3d 5, 1977 WL 199603, 1977 Ohio App. LEXIS 6935
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 4, 1977
Docket315
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 367 N.E.2d 1226 (State v. Hafle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hafle, 367 N.E.2d 1226, 52 Ohio App. 2d 9, 6 Ohio Op. 3d 5, 1977 WL 199603, 1977 Ohio App. LEXIS 6935 (Ohio Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

CRAWFORD, J.

Defendant, the appellant herein, was charged with cruelty to animals in depriving cattle,’ sheep and a horse of necessary sustenance in violation of R. C. 959.13, on or about February 25, 1975. From a verdict of guilty and a sentence he has filed this appeal.

In May 1974, defendant and his wife removed their residence from Missouri to a twenty acre farm which they purchased in Clinton County, Ohio.

They brought from Missouri to Ohio some forty head of beef cattle, a horse and two sheep. Defendant testified that he marketed about 19 cattle, butchered 1, lost 3 from drowning in highwater and 1 from an accident in shipping.

On February 25, 1975, after having received ' a ■ complaint- from the neighborhood about defendant’s neglect of his cattle, Herbert M. Conner, director of' the Clinton County Humane Society, with Tom Swingly, a member of the society, called at defendant’s farm, talked with him, and inspected the cattle and the premises.

Conner, with Swingly and perhaps another associate, *10 returned to the farm on February 26, again the same day, and again on February 28. Conner testified that the purpose of their visits had been to inspect the animals and to get the matter worked out, not to prosecute anyone. He stated that defendant said he would sell some of the cattle to a neighbor and take the rest to the stockyards, and that he would plan to do so on February 27.

Conner and Swingly testified that defendant said the price of cattle was down and that he was not going to put any more money into them. They stated that defendant said “Let them die,” and he ultimately admitted that some 11 or 12 of the cattle had already died.

The cattle were still there on February 28, when, for the first time, defendant became hostile. On February 25 and 26 he had accompanied the visitors to the barn and had shown them the cattle and the premises.

On March 4, 1975, all the livestock, consisting of 8 cattle, the horse and 2 sheep, were removed from defendant’s farm in accordance with an order prepared in the local solicitor’s office. The state’s evidence at the trial included the testimony of a number of neighboring farmers, who said that the cattle were weak and emaciated, and one or more had been compelled to remain out in the field.

Defendant contended that although he had had some difficulty with one batch of mouldy hay, and had experienced some problem in finding hay of good quality, he did acquire a sufficient quantity of such, and fed it and some pellets to his stock. There was conflict in the testimony as to the kind and amount of hay which he actually fed.

In explanation of the loss of the cattle and the emaciated and weakened condition of the survivors, defendant blamed, among other factors, the shipping (which occurred 9 months before), the difficulty of the cattle in adjusting to a new climate, the bad weather (although some were shut out of the bam), the difficulty he experienced obtaining good hay, and parasites.

Two veterinarians who had seen the cattle at one time or another, testified. Defendant’s counsel attempted to elicit from them a siaiement that parasites caused the *11 malnutrition, hut the substance of their expert testimony was that malnutrition more often occurred first thereby rendering the stock susceptible to parasites.

I. The first assignment of erro- concerns the overruling of defendant’s motion to dismiss, timely made and renewed, based upon a claim of the unconstitutionality of E. 0.' 959.-13(A), under which he was charged.

The brief divides the argument of this assignment into six numbered issues.

1. The first issue thus raised is that the statute under which the defendant was charged is void for vagueness.

The charge was framed under E. C. 959.13(A), entitled “Cruelty to Animals.” The section then read:

“No person shall overwork, overdrive, overload, or torture an animal, deprive one of necessary sustenance, unnecessarily or cruelly beat, needlessly multilate or kill, or impound or confine an animal without supplying it during such confinement with a sufficient quantity of good wholesome food and water. No person shall carry or convey an animal in a cruel or inhumane manner, nor keep cows or other animals in an enclosure without wholesome exercise and change of air, nor feed cows on food that produces impure or unwholesome milk, nor work or abandon to die an old, maimed, sick, infirm, or diseased animal. A person, or corporation engaged in transporting livestock shall not detain such stock in railroad cars or compartments longer than twenty-eight hours after they- are placed without supplying them with necessary food, water, and attention, nor permit such stock to be so crowded as to overlie, crush, wound, or kill each other.”

The format of this section was changed, effective January 17, 1977, but it remains substantially the same as quoted here.

As authority for his argument that this statute is unconstitutional, defendant cites two eases arising under vagrancy and suspicious person ordinances.

The first of these cases in Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville (1972), 405 U. S. 156. The court at page 162 said of the vagrancy ordinance involved:

*12 “This ordinance is void for vagneness, both in the sense that it Tails to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden by the statute,’ United States v. Harriss, 347 U. S. 612, 617, and because it encourages arbitrary and erratic arrests and convictions. Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88; Herndon v. Lowry, 301 U. S. 242.”

The second case cited by defendant, which concerned a suspicious person ordinance, was Palmer v. City of Euclid (1971), 402 U. S. 544. The court, at page 545, said:

“We reverse the judgment against Palmer because the ordinance is so vague and lacking in ascertainable standards of guilt that, as applied to Palmer, it failed to give ‘a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden * * *.’ United States v. Harriss, 347 U. S. 612, 617 (1954).”

Plaintiff cited the following cases: Commonwealth v. Curry (1890), 150 Mass. 509; Ames v. State (1911), 11 Ohio N. P. (N. S.) 385; and Mulhauser v. State (1900), 1 Ohio C. C. (N. S.) 273.

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Bluebook (online)
367 N.E.2d 1226, 52 Ohio App. 2d 9, 6 Ohio Op. 3d 5, 1977 WL 199603, 1977 Ohio App. LEXIS 6935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hafle-ohioctapp-1977.