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58 Ala. 611

Berdeaux v. Davis

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1877

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1877-12-15

Tried before the Hon. JohN K. Heney. William J. Berdeaux, appellant, brought this suit against Evrit Davis, appellee, for $20,000 damages, alleging in one count of the complaint that said defendant “ falsely and maliciously charged the plaintiff with an attempt to commit larceny by speaking of, and concerning him, in the presence of divers persons, in substance as follows ; “ William J. Ber-deaux tried to steal Tobe Beady’s hog, but he could not do it,” &o. To this count the…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 1925

6 state decisions

30187718801890190019101920decided

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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STONE, J.

¶1The attempt to commit a felony or misdemeanors is a misdemeanor. — Code of Ala. § 4447, and authorities cited on appellant’s brief. ’ The word ‘ try,’ as found in the connection charged in each count of the complaint, is the synonym of the word attempt. — "Webster’s Dictionary. “Every accusation, importing the commission of a crime punishable by indictment, must be held presumptively to mean what the language used ordinarily imports.” — Code of 1876, § 2975. To affirm of another that he tried to do anything implying physical effort, is the equivalent of saying he attempted to do it. This is the ordinary import of the language.

¶2An attempt to commit a larceny, grand or petit, involves moral turpitude ; is indictable and punishable by fine and imprisonment, or hard labor for the county. — Code of Alabama, §§ 4447, 4904. A charge of such offense is actionable per se. — 2 Brick. Dig. 202, § 5.

¶3Reversed and remanded.

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