Talley v. State

147 S.W. 255, 66 Tex. Crim. 342, 1912 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 254
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 1, 1912
DocketNo. 1801.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 147 S.W. 255 (Talley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Talley v. State, 147 S.W. 255, 66 Tex. Crim. 342, 1912 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 254 (Tex. 1912).

Opinion

HARPER, Judge.

That we may intelligently pass on the first question presented, it may be stated that Coryell County had adopted prohibition, and a retail liquor dealer could not obtain license to sell intoxicating liquors in Coryell County under the provisions of chapter 17, Act of the Thirty-Eirst Legislature, known as the Robertson-Eitzhugh law, for in section 1 of said Act it is provided, that licenses under said law may be issufed only in counties, or subdivision of a county, justice precinct, city or town where local option is not in force.

Hamilton County in April last, at the date of the alleged offense, had not adopted prohibition, and appellant obtained license under the provisions of the Robertson-Eitzhugh law to sell intoxicating liquors in Hamilton County, and his saloon was located in Hamilton County, about one hundred feet from the Coryell County line. By section 19 of the Robertson-Eitzhugh law, being article 622 of the Revised Code, it is provided that one with license under the provisions of that Act who shall knowingly sell, give away or deliver or otherwise dispose of, or suffer' same to be done, about his premises, any intoxicating liquor to a minor, shall be punished by a fine not less than $10 nor more than $200, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not longer than sixty dajrs; or by both such fine and imprisonment. That this law applies alone to the licensed retail liquor dealer, is manifest by other provisions of our Criminal Code. Article 1054 of the Revised Code provides, that if a person shall sell or'give, etc., any intoxicating liquor to a minor, he shall be punished by a fine not less than $25 nor more than $100, while article 593 makes it an offense for any express company or common carrier'to deliver any intoxicating liquor to a minor, fixing a penalty. The 'rules of construction require this court to give such construction to the Penal Code that all its provisions may be upheld, if consistent with the intent of the Legislature, and in or *344 der to sustain, all three of the provisions relating to the sale of liquors to minors, it is necessary to apply article 593 to express companies and common carriers alone; article 622 to the retail liquor dealer, licensed under the Eobertson-Pitzhugh law, and article 1054 to all persons other than the licensed retail dealer and express companies, and by so doing all three of the provisions of the Code, with their different penalties, can be upheld, and we think to do so is but giving force and effect to the intent of the Legislature- in passing them, and it is not surprising that a heavier and different penalty was affixed to the licensed dealer than -to the others named in the other two articles.

The grand jury, of Coryell County at its July term, 1911, presented a bill of indictment, charging that J. L. Talley -on or about the 28th day of April, A. D. One Thousand Eine Hundred and Eleven and anterior to the presentment of this indictment, in the county of Cor-yell and State of Texas, he, the said J. L. Talley being then and there a retail liquor dealer, and a malt liquor dealer, did then and there by and through one George Brunk who was then and there the clerk and agent -of, and a person acting for, him, the said J. L. Talley, unlawfully and knowingly sell, give away -and deliver about his premises intoxicating liquor to Ermon Chamlee, the said Ermon Chamlee then and there being a minor and a person under the age of twenty-one years, against the peace apd dignity of the State.

As before stated, Mr. Talley was licensed as a retail liquor dealer in Hamilton County, had his place of business in Hamilton County, and the sale was made in Hamilton County, but w-ithin 100 feet of the Coryell County line. This indictment was returned by the Coryell County grand jury, under article 238, Eevised Code of Procedure, which provides “an offense committed on the boundary of any two counties, or within four hundred yards thereof, may be prosecuted and punished in either county; and the indictment or information may allege the offense to have been committed in the county where prosecuted.” This provision was first adopted in 1856 and was article 191 of that Code, and upon the proper construction of this article depends whether or not a licensed liquor dealer who sells to a minor in territory where prohibition is not in force can be prosecuted in a prohibition county for violating article 622 of the Penal Code, which relates to retail liquor dealers alone.

Since the adoption of article 238 (old Code 191) in 1856, the people of this State in amending their Constitution in 1876, provided for the adoption of prohibition in counties and subdivisions thereof, and the Legislature since then in adopting laws (and the courts have so construed them) has adopted and been compelled to adopt a different system of laws regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors in territory where -the sale is permitted, and in territory where the sale is prohibited, and we are inclined to the view that laws regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors in territory where the sale is per *345 mitted, and providing penalties for the violation of such laws, have no force and effect in territory where the sale is prohibited. Wor have the laws prohibiting the sale, and providing penalties for the violation of such laws any force and effect in territory where the sale is permitted, and if this be the correct construction, can a man be tried in Coryell County for violating a law; which is not in force in that county? The statute above gives venue where a law is in force, but it puts in force no law. We, therefore, hold that the above quoted provision of the Code of Procedure, having been adopted when we did not have a dual system of laws, applies only to such laws, which are in force in both counties—that is the county where the offense is alleged to have been committed and in the county where the prosecution is sought to be maintained.

The citizenship of Texas in providing in their Constitution that the sale of liquor might be prohibited in certain territory and permitted in other sections, in providing that stock laws, prohibiting cattle from running at' large in certain sections, etc., and permitting them to run at will in ether sections, recognized and appreciated that the same laws would not be applicable to the conditions where if the sale of liquor was permitted or stock were permitted to run at large, as would be applicable where the sale was prohibited, or where it was prohibited for stock to run at large, and penalties for the enforcement of the different laws in force in different sections under different conditions, rendered necessary by conditions existing under those laws, would of necessity have to be adopted, and such laws would only be in force in such territory. We do not think for a moment it would be contended that if Coryell County should adopt the hog law, and Hamilton County refuse to adopt it, that if the hogs in Hamilton County went into Coryell County, and were caught within 400 yards of the Hamilton County line, that the hog law of Coryell Gounty could be enforced in the County of Hamilton, and an information alleging that the hog law was in force in Hamilton County, undertaken to be proven by showing that' Coryell County had adopted the law, would be sustained.

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Related

Brown v. State
201 S.W.2d 50 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1946)
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 1941
Owens v. State
135 S.W.2d 997 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
147 S.W. 255, 66 Tex. Crim. 342, 1912 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/talley-v-state-texcrimapp-1912.