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59 N.H. 320

State v. Downs

Supreme Court of New Hampshire

Decided December 5, 1879

Supreme Court of New Hampshire · decided 1879-12-05

Indictment, charging that the respondent attempted to set fire to an out-building adjoining a dwelling-house. The evidence was, that the out-building did not touch the house; that the space between them at the base was four inches; that the house was higher than the out-building, and the roof of the house extended over it, leaving a space of about three feet between its top and the under side of the roof of the house.

Relies on Arkell v. . Commerce Ins. Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-12-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently November 1969

3 state decisions

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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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Stanley, J.

¶1 The motion for the discharge of the respondent ■should have been granted. There was a variance between the indictment and the proof. The out-building did not adjoin the dwelling-house. “Adjoining” is a synonym for “adjacent to,” “ contiguous.” it was not adjacent to or contiguous, that is, in contact with the house. Arkell v. Ins. Co., 69 N. Y. 192; Rex v. Hodges, 1 Moo. & M. 341; Peverelly v. People, 3 Park. 59; 2 Russ. Cr. 557-561.

¶2 The statute upon which this indictment was found specifies three distinct offences, although the punishment is the same in all of them. They are, — first, burning a dwelling-house; second, burning any out-building adjoining a dwelling-house; third, burning any building whereby a dwelling-house shall be burned. The words an out-building adjoining a dwelling-house are words of description, and must be proved. A conviction under this indictment, upon the evidence received, would be no bar to an indictment for attempting to set fire to an out-building whereby a dwelling-house might be burned, and the evidence received in this case would support such a charge.

¶3 Judgment arrested.

Bingham, J., did not sit: the others concurred.
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