59 Pa. Super. 286 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1915
Opinion by
A single count indictment charged Edward Hand, and Rose Hand, his wife, with selling liquor without a license; to which the defendants pleaded not guilty. The counsel of the wife requested the trial judge to charge that as the husband was in and about the house at the time the sales were made, the presumption was that the wife acted under compulsion of her husband, and that the burden of proof that she was so acting, was upon the commonwealth, and the fact that she was acting independent of the husband’s will must be established beyond a reasonable doubt, in order to warrant a verdict of guilty. The several points were refused without being read to the jury, and the wife and husband were convicted. The assignments of error raise only the question of the refusal of the court to affirm the defendants’ points. Ordinarily, the question raised by the points would be a very important legal proposition which should be carefully considered by the trial judge, but in the light of the uncontradicted facts in this case, they were immaterial. The agent of a brewing company testified that he had been delivering beer to the establishment conducted by the defendants for about five years, and that eighty-seven dozen bottles of beer was below the average monthly delivery. That Mrs. Hand always ordered the beer, and always paid for it after having it charged to her on the books of the company. No answer that the court could make to the points as submitted would have had any appreciable effect in changing this verdict. It would have been more orderly
The judgment is affirmed.