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3 W. Va. 685

Bales v. State

West Virginia Supreme Court

Decided July 15, 1868

West Virginia Supreme Court · decided 1868-07-15

Adam S. Bales was indicted by the grand jury of the county of Berkeley, at the September term, 1867, for the larceny of three hundred and thirty-nine ivory checks of the value of twenty-five cents each, of'the goods and chattels of Robert D. Chambers. He was found guilty at the same term, and his term of imprisonment fixed at one year in the penitentiary.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The important question therefore is, whether these checks, kept and used for gambling contrary to the statute, can be the subject of larceny? That they could not have been recovered by action, is clear on the general principle that no court would lend its aid to the guilty keeper or owner to recover his illegal articles. And the case of Spaulding v. Preston, 21 Vt. 10 , is directly in point. But still, the question recurs, whether larceny can be committed of such prohibited things. And, to hold that it could not, would be to run the hazard of encouraging larceny by discouraging gaming. “The law punishes gaming and the keeping for gaming purposes articles of like character with those mentioned, and provides the mode of seizing and destroying them by the hand of an officer and the. order of the magistrate. And it is perhaps more politic that resort be had to the mode prescribed by law for that purpose, than to encourage a resort to theft for discouraging gambling. The cases cited from Massachusetts, where the subject was twice fully considered, take this view of it. Commonwealth v. Coffee, 9 Gray, 137; Com. v. Rourke, 10 Cush., 397; . . .””

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Donovan

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1868-07-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently March 1931

15 state decisions — followed in 13 states

6018681870188018901900191019201930decided

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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Brown, President,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2Adam S. Bales was convicted of grand larceny for stealing three hundred and. thirty ivory checks, of the value of twenty-five cents each. On the trial these checks were proved to have been kept by the owner at his saloon, for gambling purposes, and were so used in playing the game of poker.

¶3The prisoner assigns for error, “ That the offence of larceny cannot be committed by taking and carrying away articles manufactured for and used for the purpose of gambling.” Alleging that “the law does not recognize them as property, over which its protection is to be extended. The statute expressly authorizes a search warrant to be issued for the seizure of such articles, wherever found, subject to the jurisdiction of the justice, and orders them to be burned.”

¶4The important question therefore, is, whether these checks, kept and used for gambling contrary to the statute, can be the subject of larceny? That they could not have been recovered by action, is clear on the general principle that no court would leud its aid to the guilty keeper or owner to recover his illegal articles. And the case of Spaulding vs. Preston, 21 Vt., 10, is directly in point. But. still, the question recurs, whether larceny can be committed of such prohibited things. And, to hold that it could not, would be to run the hazard of encouraging larceny by discouraging gaming.

¶5The law punishes gaming and the keeping for gaming purposes articles of like character with those mentioned, and provides the mode of seizing and destroying them by the hand of an officer and the order of the magistrate. And it is perhaps more politic that resort be had to the mode prescribed by law for that purpose, than to encourage a re*688sort to theft for discouraging gambling. The cases cited from Massachusetts, where the subject was twice fully considered, take this view of it. Commonwealth vs. Coffe, 9 Gray, 137; Com. vs. Rourke, 10 Cush., 397; Ward vs. People, 3 Hill, 396.

¶6I think, therefore, that this objection of the prisoner must be overruled.

¶7There is nothing in the affidavits filed, or other objections to the verdict, to warrant the court in setting aside the verdict and awarding a new trial. There was, therefore, no error in the judgment of the circuit court, and the same must be affirmed with costs.

¶8Judgment affirmed.

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