127 Ky. 171 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1907
Opinion of the Court by
Reversing.
Information was filed in the Hart circuit court by the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the district against G. W. Smith and W. A. McGuiar, partners, for a violation of section 2572, Ky. Stats., pronouncing a penalty against the owner in possession of premises on which liquor is sold, disposed of, obtained, or furnished in violation or evasion of law. The charge in the information is as follows: “The plaintiff, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, states and charges that the defendants, G. W. Smith and W. A. McGuiar, partners trading and doing business under the name of Smith & McGuiar, were at all the time hereinafter mentioned, and have been continuously for the past twelve months before the commencement of this action, in the actual possession, use, and occupancy of the hereinafter described premises, to-wit: A certain house situated in the town of Horse Cave, county of Hart and State of Kentucky, known as the Smith & McGuiar drug store, and that said defendant was on the —— day of December, 1905, using, occupying, and controlling said house and premises as a drug store, and on said0 date, and within twelve months
The section of the statutes reads: (section 2572, Ky. Stats. 1903) “The person in possession of the premises on which liquor is sold, disposed of, obtained or furnished in violation or evasion of law. by any trick or method whatever, on conviction, shall be fined
It is idle to say that a tramp perchance might surreptitiously, and unbeknown to the owner, slip into his outhouse, and there illegally sell liquors whereby the ignorant owner would become an offender under the statute. A similar argument was used once upon a time, a long while ago in ancient Bologna where a medical man bled one on a public street who had fallen in a hit, and was thought by some to. be guilty under the Roman law against brawlers, which punished all who let blood in the public streets of the city. 1 Bl. Comm. 60. But the good sense of the ancients which refused to accede to that argument is