137 Wis. 543 | Wis. | 1909
This prosecution is under ch. 469, Laws of 1907, which went into effect October 1st of that year. Prior thereto the notification of births had been required to be. made to municipal officers, in Milwaukee to the commissioner of health. The effect of the statute of 1907, now designated as sec. 1022 — 1 to sec. 1022 — 59, inclusive, was to create a state bureau of vital statistics (sec. 1022 — 1), to create the offices of state registrar (sec. 1022 — 2), and local registrars in each municipal subdivision of the state (sec. 1022 — 6). It
“Any person who shall wilfully violate any of the provisions of secs. 1022 — 1 to 1022 — 59, inclusive, or who shall neglect or refuse to perform any duty or do any act imposed upon him or required by said sections, or who shall neglect or refuse to make any certificate required by said sections to be made, or falsely make any such certificate, or knowingly make any false statement in such certificate, or who shall alter any certificate or report provided for or required by said sections, shall be punished” by fine or imprisonment (Laws of 1907, ch. 469, sec. 2) ;
and by its final section (sec. 5) provided: “This act shall take effect and be in force from and after October 1, 1907.”
The facts, which are not in dispute, are that the defendant is a physician, in active practice in the city of Milwaukee since 1879 ; that his name, age, and profession have for many years been registered in the office of the city health officer, who by the act of 1907 (see. 1022 — 6) is made local regis
Obviously, there are two offenses alleged in the complaint, namely, the failure to register and the failure to file a certificate of birth. They stand upon different grounds. The only provision for registering to be found in the act is sec. 1022 — 19, which requires the registering to be done on or before October 1, 1907, and contains no requirement whatever that a physician register thereafter, though by implication it may so permit. By the last section the act did
2. Turning now to the charge that he wilfully neglected to file such a certificate of birth as the statute commanded: The word “wilfully” has acquired a pretty well defined meaning in criminal statutes. While its lexiconic significance may in some association be no more than intentionally or even knowingly, yet, when used to describe acts which shall be punished criminally, it includes, in addition to mere purpose to do the act, a purpose to do wrong. It involves ■evil intent or legal malice, according to the great weight of authority. Felton v. U. S. 96 U. S. 699, 702; Potter v. U. S. 155 U. S. 438, 446, 15 Sup. Ct. 144; Spurr v. U. S. 174 U. S. 728, 734, 19 Sup. Ct. 812; State ex rel. v. Alcorn, 78 Tex. 387, 14 S. W. 663; Comm. v. Kneeland, 20 Pick. 206, 220. This meaning for the word has been declared ■for Wisconsin statutes in the words of Dixon, C. J., in State v. Preston, 34 Wis. 675, as satisfied only by “evil intent without justifiable excuse.” It is used “to characterize an act done wantonly, or one which a man of reasonable knowledge and ability must know to be contrary to his duty;” and that case has been considered authoritative. State v. Castle, 44 Wis. 670, 676; State v. Smith, 52 Wis. 134, 137, 8 N. W. 870.
We are convinced that defendant’s • conduct evinces no such state of mind. The voluntary effort to perform his duty by making certificate upon the blanks which had been supplied him by the public officer, and the offer to comply with new, regulations implied by his request that new blanks therefor be sent him, together with other circumstances, make plain that there was mere inadvertent omission of a required act in the sincere attempt to perform his duty as he understood it.
Since the views already expressed preclude a conclusion
By the Court. — Judgment reversed, and cause remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint.