Coleman v. State

Decided June 15, 1858

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1858-06-15

[indictment fob lending pistol to minob.] Appeal from the Circuit Court of Dallas. Tried before the Hon. William M. Bbooks. The indictment in this case charged, that the prisoner, James Coleman, “did sell, give or lend, to Matthew Locke, a male minor, a pistol.” On the trial, the prisoner reserved the following bill of exceptions to the rulings of the presiding judge: “ On the trial of this case, but one witness was examined by the State, and none at all by the defendant.

Cited in Abbott (1879)’s definition of “Lend”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1858-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently July 2024

2 federal appellate · 1 state decisions

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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RICE, C. J.

¶1The indictment is founded on the act of February 2d, 1856, (Pamphlet Acts of 1855-6, p. 17,) which makes it a misdemeanor to “sell, or give, or lend, to any male minor,” a pistol.

¶2A man lends a pistol, within the meaning of the act, when, having in his drawer, and under his control, the pistol of an absent owner, on the application of a male minor to lend him the pistol, he permits him to take it from the drawer and carry it away, directing him that it *583should be returned within a certain short period, at the expiration of which time the owner was expected to return and call for it. — See Webster’s Dictionary, and the meaning of “lend” there given.

¶3The charge of the court below is correct, and its judgment is affirmed.