State v. Jaeger

63 Mo. 403
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1876
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 63 Mo. 403 (State v. Jaeger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jaeger, 63 Mo. 403 (Mo. 1876).

Opinion

Sherwood, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court.

In this case the indictment was as follows :

The grand jurors of the State-of Missouri impaneled and sworn, and charged to inquire within and for the body of the county o£ Newton upon their oaths present: that John Jaeger, on the 31st day of July, 1873, at the county of Newton, in the State of Missouri, being then and there a maker of intoxicating liquors, to-wit: fermented wine, did then and there sell to one Allen Williams a bottle of said intoxicating liquors, and did then and there unlawfully and willfully permit and suffer the said Allen Williams to drink the said intoxicating liquor at the place of sale, the same being a place under the control of him, the said John Jaeger, he, the said John Jaeger, not having then and there a wine and beer house license, contrary to the form of the statutes in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Missouri. •
N. H. Dale,
Pros. Atffy,” etc.

The defendant appeared and moved to quash this indictment for the following reasons :

1st. Because said indictment does not charge that any offense has been committed against the laws of the State of Missouri.

2d. Because said indictment does not allege that the defendant was not a dram-shop keeper,' or that he had not lawful authority to sell intoxicating liquors, to be drank in the premises where the same were sold.

8d. Because said defendant, as a maker of fermented wine, had the right to sell said wine in any quantity, and for any purpose, at the place where the same was made.

This motion having been overruled by the court, the defendant pleaded “ not guilty,” and at the next term the case was tried by the court, without a jury, upon the following agreed statement of facts:

[406]*406“ In this case it is agreed that the defendant, jointly with his brother, Herman Jaeger, is a wine and grape grower in the county of Newton, in the State of Missouri; that said Jaeger, on the 13 th day of July, 1873, and long before and ever since that time, jointly owned and lived upon and cultivated eighty acres of land in said Newton county; that upon said eighty acres of land there was at the time before mentioned a dwelling house, where defendant and his brother Herman resided, a wine cellar, wine manufactory and vineyard ; that said Jaeger, at their said place of residence, had for some years before the 31st day of July, 1873, manufactured and produced wine from the grapes grown by them on said premises ; that on or about said 31st day of July, 1873, defendant sold to one Allen Williams a bottle of said wine so grown and made by said Jaeger on said premises, where said wine was grown and made, which wine had been before that time fermented, and permitted said Allen Williams to drink a portion or the whole of said bottle of wine on said premises, where said wine was made and sold, said premises at the time being under the control of said defendant; that said defendant had at the time last mentioned no wine or beer house license. ”

At the close of the case defendant asked the court 'to grant three declarations of law, to the effect generally, that under the statute it was no offense for a wine-grower, who has sold on his own premises wine of his own production, to permit the same to be drank at the place of sale. All of these declarations were refused by the court, the defendant found guilty, and fined $40 and costs.

The only question needing solution is that presented by these declarations.

To attain, in this regard, a correct conclusion, necessitates an examination into the history of legislation in this State respecting production of wine.

The first act relating thereto was that approved March 26th, 1868, which so amended section 26, chapter 98 of the Genera! Statutes, that it read as follows:

“This chapter shall not be so construed as to affect the right of a merchant to sell intoxicating liquors according to the provisions [407]*407of the law regulating the licensing and taxation of merchants, [nor as affecting the right of wine-growers to sell wine of their own production by the bottle of ordinary size. ] ” The amendment, thus made, I have placed within brackets.

This section underwent a further amendment, by the act approved February 25, 1869, and in lieu of the words, “ by the bottle of ordinary size,” were substituted, “ in any quantity on their own premises.”

The act last cited was followed by that approvedtMarch 25, 1872, entitled “An act to amend chapter 98 of the revised statutes of 1865, being chapter 48 of Wagner’s Statutes, concerning dram-shop keepers and their licenses, and to promote temperance and encourage the production of native wines in this State.”

It is only requisite to quote the first and second sections of this act:

Sec. 1. “There is hereby created a special class of licenses, to be known as wine and beer licenses. A wine and beer house keeper is a person permitted by law, being licensed as such, to sell beer, cider and native wines, the latter being the growth and manufacture of this State, in quantities not exceeding ten gallons.”

Sec. 2. ‘ ‘No person not having a license as dram-shop keeper shall, directly or indirectly, sell beer, cider and native wines, the latter the growth and manufacture of this State, in less quantities than one gallon, without taking out a license as wine and beer house keeper ; provided, however, that this section shall not be construed as authorizing a license to be levied upon and collected from any wine-grower for selling wine of his own production, in any quantity, on his own premises.”

The question as to what are to. be regarded as such premises, has received judicial construction to the effect that they are where the wine is produced or manufactured. (State vs. Wyl, 55 Mo. 67.)

It will thus be observed that the act of 1868 creates and confers a new privilege on wine-growers, that of selling “wine of their own production by the bottle of ordinary size that the act of 1869 enlarges the privileges conferred, by permitting them to [408]*408sell such wine “ in any quantity on their own premises,” and that the act of 1872, although giving origin to a “ special class of licenses,” in respect to the sale of beer, cider and native wine, still sedulously protects the wine-grower by the emphatic proviso, that this section shall not be construed as authorizing a license to be levied upon, and collected from, any wine-grower for selling wine of his own production, in any quantity, on his own premises.”

Had the act of 1868 remained in full force, there would, perhaps, have been ground for the fair deduction that the legislature, by limiting the producer to sales of his wine by the bottle of ordinary size,” designed those words as a preventative of the assumption of any larger privileges than those specially conferred by that act. But the subsequent acts referred to, appear to abolish all restrictions relative to measurement, and to leave the matter of measurement, or whether the wine shall be measured at all or not, to the wine-grower’s option, so long as he complies with the statutory conditions applicable to his case.

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63 Mo. 403, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jaeger-mo-1876.