Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

5 Ala. App. 196

Rosenberg v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided June 19, 1912

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1912-06-19

<p> Violating Prohibition Law. </p> <p>1. Appeal and Error; Record; Correction. — On a motion to strike portions of the bill of exceptions, this court cannot regard ex parte affidavits as a part of the transcript or record, for the purpose of correcting recitals, in the transcript certified as correct by the clerk of the court; a party attacking a' bill of exception signed by the judge must proceed regularly under the statute to establish a correct bill.</p> <p>2. Indictment and Information; Sufficiency; Surplusage. — An indictment charging the sale of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors without a license and contrary to law is sufficient; the words “without a license” being mere surplusage.</p> <p>3. Same; Previous Conviction; Requisites —It is not necessary that an indictment for a first offense under section 3, Acts 1909, p. 10, should allege that it is the first offense.</p> <p>4. Intoxicating Liquors; Evidence; Other Offenses. — -In a prosecution for violating a prohibition law by an employee of the defendant, evidence that beer and whisky were found in defendant’s place of business and that other sales had been made when he was present, .were admissible when limited in consideration to the question of defendant’s connection with the sale charged.</p> <p>5. Sanie; Sufficiency. — Where the evidence showed a sale of liquor by an employe of defendant in defendant’s store, that other sales had taken place there when he was in the store and that beer and whisky were found stored there, it was sufficient to support a conviction.</p> <p>O. Same; Participation. — Under section 29%, Acts 1909, p. 90', where a sale was made by an employe of defendant in defendant’s store, it was not necessary to show actual participation by the defendant in the sale, and a charge that such participation was necessary was properly refused.</p> <p>7. Same; Instruction; Weight of Evidence. — A charge asserting that unless the jury believe that defendant participated in the act of selling by the employe from whom the witness testified he bought the liquor, or that defendant authorized the sale, they should .acquit, and that the fact that the person making the sale was a clerk of the defendnt, was insufficient in itself to show this, was properly refused as being argumentative and also as invading the province of the jury.</p> <p>S. Same. — -A charge asserting that the mere knowledge of the sale of beer by the negro to the witness Russell of the defendant Rosenburg, is not sufficient evidence to convict, was properly refused as confusing and misleading, and as not enunciating any clear proposition of law.</p> <p>9. Charge of Court; Reasonable Doubt. — It is error to refuse to charge that if the jury, upon considering all the evidence have a reasonable doubt of defendant’s guilt arising out of any -part of the evidence you should acquit, when the same is not substantially covered by other given charges.</p> <p>10. Costs; Criminal Coiwiction. — One convicted of violating the prohibition law when sentenced for cost should be sentenced at the rate of seventy-five cents per day instead of forty cents.</p>

Relies on Black v. Pate · Dowling v. City of Troy · Scott v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed and remanded · Decided 1912-06-19

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently May 1954

9 state decisions

4019121920193019401950decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PELHAM, J. —

¶1The defendant was convicted of a violation of the prohibition laws.

¶2Appellant’s counsel insist in brief on a motion to strike certain portions of the bill of exceptions. The record shows no submission on motion; nor could the court look to the ex parte affidavit attached to the brief as a part of the record, had the motion been submitted for the purpose of correcting the recitals in the transcript certified by the clerk of the court as correct.— Prinz v. Weber, 126 Ala. 146, 28 South. 10; Black v. Pate, 130 Ala. 514, 30 South. 434. If appellant considered the bill of exceptions signed by the judge incorrect, he should have proceeded regularly under the statute to establish a correct bill.

¶3The words in the indictment “without a license” are .mere surplusage. The indictment was sufficient. — - Scott v. State, 3 Ala. App. 142, 57 South. 413; Mitchell v. State, 141 Ala. 90, 37 South. 407; Olmstead v. State, 89 Ala. 16, 7 South. 775

¶4The argument that the indictment should have alleged whether the prosecution was for the first or second offense (Acts 1909, p. 10, § 3) cannot prevail. No evidence of a former conviction was introduced; nor was the penalty for a second offense, upon which the court must impose an additional sentence for not less than three months, imposed in this case. It is not essential, when the prosecution is for the first offense, that the indictment contain an allegation to that effect.

¶5The court was not in error in admitting evidence to the effect that beer and whisky were found in the defendant’s place of business, and that other sales had *201taken place when he was in the establishment, as this evidence had a tendency to show his connection with the sale made by the person in his place of business while he was in the front part of the store. The court limited the consideration of this evidence by the jury to showing defendant’s connection with the sale first testified to by the witness Russell. The evidence was sufficient to authorize a conviction, and the court properly submitted that question to a jury. — See Garson v. State, 3 Ala. App. 206, 58 South. 88. In Cook’s Case, 1 Ala. App. 224, 55 South. 269, cited by appellant, the defendant was not shown to have had any connection with the store where the transaction took place, nor to have been in the store when the sale was made. In the instant case, there is evidence tending to show that the store was kept by the defendant, that more than one sale took place when he was in the store, and that beer and whisky were found stored there.

¶6Charge No. 16, refused to the defendant, appears substantially covered in given charges 1 (4), 2 (5), 16 (17), and 35.

¶7Charge 31 is argumentative, and invades the province of the jury in weighing the evidence.

¶8Charge 32 does not correctly state the law. It is not necessary to show an actual participation by the defendant in the sale. — Acts 1909, p. 90, § 29%.

¶9Charge 34 is not such a charge as the court can be put in error for refusing. It is confusing and misleading, and not a clear statement of any principle of law. Read in one way, it predicates knowledge by the negro of the sale not being sufficient evidence to convict the defendant.

¶10The proposition of law upon which instructions were sought in charges 20 and 22 cannot be said to be' substantially covered by any of the given charges. Charge *20222 is unquestionably a correct charge, and its refusal is error.

¶11Attention is called to the fact that the defendant should have been sentenced at the rate of 75 cents per day, and not 40 cents, to pay the costs of the prosecution. — Dowling v. City of Troy, 1 Ala. App. 508, 56 South. 116.

¶12For the error pointed out, the case must be reversed.

¶13Reversed and remanded.

/5/alaapp/196 · .json · Public domain