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24 Mo. 532

State v. Miller

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided March 15, 1857

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1857-03-15

•Appeal from Stoddard Circuit Court. The defendant, Miller, was indicted for dealing as a merchant without a license.

Relies on State v. Ladd

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1857-03-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently April 1909

1 district · 8 state decisions

30185718601870188018901900decided

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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Scott, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2This is an indictment for dealing as a merchant without' license, omitting to state the price of the merchandise sold, and *533the person to whom it was sold. The indictment was quashed, we suppose, for that reason, as from the generality of the cause contained in the motion to quash we are left to conjecture as to the precise motive which influenced the action of the court. We have frequently condemned the practice of quashing indictments prevailing in the circuits, where the motion to quash is substituted for a demurrer. This court will not reverse a judgment of the Circuit Court refusing to quash an indictment, as it is discretionary with the court whether it will quash or leave the party to his demurrer, which latter course has at least the advantage that it renders unnecessary a bill of exceptions. The point on which this cause seems to have turned in the court below, as above stated, was decided by this court in the case of the State v. Ladd, 15 Mo. 430. The doctrine in that case has since been repeatedly recognized and acted upon, which is, that in an indictment for selling .liquor without license, the name of the person to whom sold and the price are immaterial. The other judges concurring, the judgment will be reversed, and the cause remanded.

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