81 N.C. 527
Supreme Court of North Carolina
Decided June 15, 1879
Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1879-06-15
INDICTMENT for Larceny, tried at Spring Term, 1879, of Davidson Superior Court, before Schenck, J. The bill of indictment charged the defendant Stephen Holder alias Stephen Phillips, with stealing “ one dog of the value of one dollar,” the property of oneT. T. Spaugh. The defendant’s counsel moved to quash the indictment on the ground that it did not charge an indictable offence. The motion was allowed, and Dobson, solicitor for the state, appealed.
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1879-06-15
Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1934
3 state decisions
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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¶1The defendant was indicted for stealing a dog. It is no offence at common law. 4 Bl. Com., 236; Arch. Cr. Pl., 175; 1 Hale P. C., 512. The common law is the law of this state, except where altered by statute; and we have no statute making it larceny to steal a dog ; therefore, the indictment cannot be sustained.
¶2There is no error. Let this be certified to the superior court of Davidson county.
¶3No error. Affirmed.