76 Ind. 85 | Ind. | 1881
This appeal brings in question the sufficiency of an indictment, upon which the appellant was convicted of the offence of malicious trespass.
Counsel for appellant assail the indictment upon the ground that the offence is not sufficiently charged, in that the character of the injury done to the property, upon which the trespass was committed, is not stated with proper and reasonable certainty. The indictment charges that “Marcus Brown and Cassius Brown, on the 15th day of July, 1878, at the county and State aforesaid, did then and there unlawfully, maliciously and mischievously injure, and cause to be injured, a certain window, window blind and sewing machine, all the property of Nathaniel W. Phipps, by then and there wrongfully, maliciously and mischievously throwing a stone, and stones, at and against and through the said window and window blind, and at and against said sewing machine, to the damage of the said Nathaniel Phipps, in the sum of nine dollars and forty cents.”
It will be observed that there is no description whatever of the extent or character of the injury done to the property of Nathaniel Phipps. There is, to be sure, the averment that the acts were to the damage of the said Phipps, but nothing at all is alleged as to what injury was done his property, whether defaced, broken or destroyed. There is really no traversable
In the really able and ingenious brief of the counsel for the State, it is argued that the case at bar is, in principle, the same as the class of. cases represented by Hayworth v. The State, 14 Ind. 590. The class of cases referred to decide that it is not necessary to state the means by which the
Judgment reversed.