State v. Wheeler

165 N.W. 574, 38 N.D. 456, 1917 N.D. LEXIS 56
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 27, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 165 N.W. 574 (State v. Wheeler) 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. Wheeler, 165 N.W. 574, 38 N.D. 456, 1917 N.D. LEXIS 56 (N.D. 1917).

Opinion

Grace, J.

This action is one prosecuted by the state of North Dakota against O. B. Wheeler on information filed in the district court •of Williams county, North Dakota, which information charged the defendant with keeping and maintaining a common nuisance on the 7th day of January, 1917, and during the regular December, 1916, term of the. district court in and for said Williams county, in that the defendant kept and maintained that place known as “Wheeler’s Peed Barn,” located on lots 7 and 8, Le Dosquet’s addition to the city of Williston. The information was filed by the order of the court of said county on the 15th day of January, 1917. The case was tried to the court and a jury on the 18th day of January, 1917, which term was the regular December, 1916, term of such court. The jury by their verdict found the defendant guilty as charged in the information, and recommended ito the court that the jail sentence be suspended.

Defendant in his appeal to this court has assigned eighteen errors.

[459]*459Regarding the first assignment of error, the court did not err in overruling the objection to the question as to the location of the bam. It was perfectly proper to prove the location of the barn in question.

The testimony sought to be excluded in the second assignment of •error was proper testimony to admit. The prosecution was for keeping and maintaining a common nuisance. Evidence of purchases of intoxicating liquors upon the premises, whether made from the defendant in person or from the servants or employees of such defendant, was competent testimony.

The third error assigned relates to the amendment of the information by adding thereto the number of the block in which such lots were located upon which such barn was situated. Such an amendment was a matter of form only. The information would have been perfectly good as to substance without any reference to either the lots or blocks, so long as the location of the place of the nuisance was within the county, and the place of maintaining the nuisance would be identified and proved by competent testimony. The rights of the defendant would not be prejudiced by such amendment; and the amendment, being one of form, was permitted under § 10,663, Compiled Laws of 1913. The prosecution in this case is against the person only. The state does not attempt by this proceeding to obtain an order of abatement of the nuisance, or establish a lien against the premises in which the nuisance existed and was maintained; hence, the information would have been good had there been no description of the lots or block, but merely a description of the building by which it could be recognized or identified by competent testimony. State v. Kruse, 19 N. D. 203, 124 N. W. 385. In this ease the information was amended so as to disclose a fuller description of the premises, and there was competent testimony offered tending to show the maintaining of a nuisance at the building on lots 1 and 8, block 8.

The testimony of the defendant establishes the location of the feed barn in accordance with the more particular description set forth in the information. We are of the opinion, however, that the particular description of the premises in a case such as the one at bar may be considered as mere surplusage, in view of the law that, in prosecutions against the person only, it is a sufficient allegation as to the place of the «commission of the crime where the information alleges its commission [460]*460within the county. The rule would be different if there be a search or seizure of certain property, or the abatement or restraining of a commission for the continuance of a nuisance carried on at a certain location,, or where it is the purpose of the action to acquire a lien against specific property. In all such cases there must be a definite description of the property. In all other cases where the prosecution is against the-person only, and where the only question presented is the personal guilt of the defendant, the more particular description of the place of the-commission of the offense is unnecessary, except the information must, show it is within the county.

The legal requirements of an information or indictment of a person accused of the commission of a crime are contained in § 10,693, Compiled Laws of 1913. The only portion of such section necessary for us. to consider is subdivisions 4 and 5 thereof, which are as follows:

“That the offense was committed at some place within the jurisdiction of the court, except when the act, though done without the-local jurisdiction of the county or judicial subdivision, is triable therein.”

“That the offense was committed at some time prior to the time of' the presenting of the information or of the finding of the indictment.”

Clearly, then, it must appear that an information is sufficient as to-place when the prosecution is against the person, if it contains an allegation that the crime charged to have been committed, was committed within the county. If the information contains a more specific-description of the place of the commission of the crime, and it is made-to appear by the defendant that he had been misled or deceived by the-more particular description, or his rights had in any manner been prejudiced, he may be entitled to a continuance of the trial, or, in the-event of conviction, he might be entitled to a new trial. However this, may be, we are clear that any testimony which shows or tends to show the commission of a crime by the accused within the county in which the crime was committed, is competent and admissible testimony in all cases where the prosecution is only against the person.

The defendant in the case at bar predicates error upon the admission of the testimony of those witnesses who testified they purchased intoxicating liquors from Frank Brown and Harry Wheeler, who were employees of the defendant, on the ground that it is not shown that the-[461]*461•defendant had any knowledge of such sales, if any, by Brown and Harry "Wheeler. We are of the opinion that the testimony of such witnesses as to purchases from Brown and Harry Wheeler was competent and .admissible testimony, even though the sales by Brown and Harry Wheeler were without the knowledge of the defendant.

It is shown by the testimony of the witness Joyce that he purchased whisky at the barn in question from the defendant. His testimony shows that he got one bottle of whisky from the defendant and paid him $1 therefor; that he had since that time got whisky at the bam in question.

The witness Joyce further testified as follows:

Q. Had you got whisky from the defendant himself before Christmas and after the 11th day of December, 1916 ?
A. Yes.
Q. On how many different occasions?
A. Oh, I don’t know.
•Q. More than once ?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you pay him for it?
A. Yes, sir.
'Q. How much did you pay him ?
A. A dollar a pint.
Q. Now, since Christmas, have you got whisky in the bam ?
A. Yes.
■Q. On how many different occasions ?
A. Three or four times.
■Q.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 N.W. 574, 38 N.D. 456, 1917 N.D. LEXIS 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wheeler-nd-1917.