Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

44 S.C.L. 20

State v. Lewis

Court of Appeals of South Carolina

Decided December 15, 1856

Court of Appeals of South Carolina · decided 1856-12-15

BEFORE W ARDE AW, J., AT MARION, FALL TERM, 1856. The report of his Honor, the presiding Judge, is as follows: “ The defendant was indicted for burning the woods, &c. “ The Act of 1789, (5 Stat. 125, § 5,) enacts that “no person shall put fire to or burn any grass, brush, or other combustible matter, so as thereby the woods, fields, lands, or marshes be set on fire; provided that no person shall be prevented from firing woods, fields, lands or marshes within his own bounds,…

Decided 1856-12-15

¶1Tbe opinion of tbe Court was delivered by

G-loyeb, J.

¶2This Court concurs with tbe Circuit Judge in bis construction of tbe Act. Tbe rational interpretation wbicb be has adopted enables us to collect tbe intention and apply tbe provisions of tbe Act to cases that we must conclude were intended to be embraced and punished by it.

¶3Tbe Legislature could not have intended to punish a person who negligently suffers tbe fire to get without bis own bounds and thereby injure bis neighbor’s fence, and not to embrace witbin tbe penalties of. tbe Act, him who committed *22tbe wrong maliciously by setting fire to bis neigbor’s grass ox fence. Sucb an interpretation would impute to tbe Legislature an intent not to punisb wilful, but negligent acts, wben attended witb injurious consequences, and thereby secure impunity to tbe greater offender.

¶4Motion dismissed.

O’Neall, Waedlaw, Withees, Whitkteb and Muíteo, JJ., concurred.

¶5Motion dismissed.

/44/scl/20 · .json · Public domain