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8 Mich. 431

Koster v. People

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided July 9, 1860

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1860-07-09

Plaintiff in error was convicted on an information which charged that he, “on the 13th day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, about the hour of ten o’clock in the night time of the same day, with force and arms, at the township aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, the storehouse of one John Vaughn, there situate, feloniously and burglariously did break and enter, with intent the goods and chattels of the said John Vaughn, in the said…

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““ That, where the statutes enumerate several elements as combining to create a crime, the crime cannot properly be described without including all these elements. An entry into a shop or warehouse in the night, with intent to commit a felony, is not a crime under this statute unless it also appears that the shop or warehouse is neither adjoining to nor occupied with a dwelling. Burglary, at common law, must be committed in such a place as is within the definition of a dwelling, which term has received an enlarged signification. Entering other buildings was not regarded in the same light. In making a new crime, the Legislature- have seen fit to select a peculiar class of buildings, and it cannot be enlarged or varied.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including People v. Hamaker

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-07-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently May 1919

9 state decisions

30186018701880189019001910decided

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 →

Campbell J.:

¶1The statute iinder which this prosecution is had punishes “ every person who shall break and enter, in the night time, any office, shop, railroad depot or warehouse, not adjoining to or occupied with a dwelling house,” with intent to commit felony.

¶2It is a plain principle of law, that where the statutes ommerate several elements as combining to create a crime, the crime can not properly be described without including all these elements. An entry into a shop or warehouse in the night, with intent to commit a felony, is not a crime under this statute unless it also appears that the shop or warehouse is neither adjoining to nor occupied with a dwelling. Burglary at common law must be committed in such a place as is within the definition of a dwelling, which term has received an enlarged signification. Entering other, buildings was not regarded in the same light. In making a pew crime, the Legislature have *433seen fit to select a peculiar class of buildings; and it can not be enlarged or varied.

¶3The information is defective in not setting forth any offense known to our laws; and the judgment was therefore erroneous, and must be reversed.

Manning & Ciiristiancy JJ. concurred.Martin Cii. J. was absent.
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