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108 N.C. 747

12 S.E 907

Smith v. . Best

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided February 5, 1891

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1891-02-05

This was an indictment for a misdemeanor, tried before Womack, J., at Fall. Term, 1890, of the Superior Court of Greene County. B. W. Taylor, for the State, testified: “ I bought liquor from defendant at his bar March, 1890.” The witness was asked, “ITow old are you reputed to be in your family?” Objected to by defendant. Objection overruled, and witness answered, “ I was nineteen years old last August.” Defendant excepted. Witness further testified, “ I am not married.

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Age”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1891-02-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 1967

9 state decisions

4018911900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Clark, J.:

¶1 The defendant testified that he knew that B. W. Taylor was a minor; that at the instance of another person, an adult, he furnished at his bar-room said minor and the adult with a drink each of spirituous liquor; that he refused to receive pay from the minor, but received it from the adult. Putting aside the palpable evasion of the law which was thus attempted, the fact remains that the minor, who was unmarried, received and drank spirituous liquor at the hands of the defendant. That he furnished it at the request of, and for a consideration paid by, the adult, makes the “dealer” none the less liable. State v. Wallace, 94 N. C., 827. No one, not even the father of the minor, could have authorized him to furnish the liquor to the minor. State v. Lawrence, 97 N. C., 492. His Plonor properly told the jury, if they believed the testimony, to find the defendant guilty. State v. Scoggins, 107 N. C., 959.

¶2 The exception to evidence was without merit. The witness was competent to testify to his own age according to the reputation in the family. Abb. Tr. Ev., 87.

¶3 The indictment was for a sale to B. W. Taylor, Jr., with a second count charging that defendant did “give away” liquor to the same. The witness merely gave his name as B. W. Taylor. There was nothing in the evidence or circumstances tending to show any doubt as to his identity with the person mentioned in-the indictment. This was not a variance. The “Jr.” is no part of the name, but a mere “descrip-tio personse.”

¶4 It may be observed that the adult who procured the defendant to furnish the liquor to the minor was equally indictable, for though not a “dealer” he was accessory to the violation of the law, and in misdemeanors all accessories are indictable as principals.

¶5 Per Curiam. No error.

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