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20 Wis. 599

Bell v. State

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided June 15, 1866

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1866-06-15

EEEOE to tbe Circuit Court for Milwaukee County. Tbe plaintiffs in error were convicted on an indictment of wbicb tbe first count charged (with specification of time and place) that tbe accused “ tbe dwelling bouse of Oscar C. Per-ris, situate in tbe city of Milwaukee in said county of Milwaukee, feloniously did break and enter, witb intent tbe goods and chattels and property of tbe said Oscar C. Perris, in tbe said dwelling bouse then and there being, then and there in the…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1866-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 1915

6 state decisions

30186618701880189019001910decided

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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Dixon, C. J.

¶1Tbe words “tbe dwelling-house of Oscar,’C Ferris,” mean tbat tbe building broken and entered was bis place of residence, and tbat be occupied it as such at tbe time of tbe breaking and entry. An averment in this form is good in tbe common law indictment for burglary and larceny, and under tbe English statute, and tbe same is true under our statute. E. S., cb. 165, secs. 9 and 10.

¶2Under section 9, no doubt, for tbe higher offense of breaking and entering a dwelling bouse in tbe night time, with intent to commit tbe crime of murder, rape, larceny &c., tbe offender being armed with a dangerous weapon at tbe time of such breaking and entering, or so arming himself in such bouse, or making an actual assault on any person lawfully therein, tbe indictment must charge tbat there was some person then lawfully in tbe bouse at tbe time. There being some person lawfully therein is, by tbe statute, one of tbe facts necessary to constitute tbe offense. If a thief, breaking and entering to steal armed with a dangerous weapon, or so arming himself in tbe bouse, should find there another thief who bad broken and entered for tbe same purpose, or, not being armed, should assault such other thief — or if two thieves should break and enter together armed, or arming themselves with dangerous weapons, or, being without such weapons, should fall out, and one make an assault upon tbe other, there being no other person in tbe bouse *602—it is clear tbat tbe offense described by section 9 would not be complete, and the offender could not be punished under it. But in section 10 the condition, “ any person then being lawfully therein,” is omitted. This indictment was drawn, and the plaintiffs in error tried, convicted and sentenced, under that section. Under that section the indictment is good. Such an indictment need not negative the being armed or arming with a dangerous weapon, or the mating of an assault upon a person lawfully in the house, necessary to constitute the higher offense named in the preceding section. Rex v. Pearce, Russ. & Ryan’s C. C., 174; Rex v. Robinson, id., 320.

¶3By the Court.— Convictions affirmed.

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