57 So. 1028 | Ala. Ct. App. | 1912
On the trial of the defendant by the court sitting without a jury, he was convicted under the first count of the indictment, which charged that he “sold, offered for sale, kept for sale, or otherwise disposed of, spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors; contrary to law.” The evidence against him was to the effect that the witness, for the State, one Cross, an acquaintance of the defendant, who lived at Corona, where the defendant also lived, and the defendant casually met at the railroad depot, at Jasper, and went up into the town together; “that after getting up to town defendant told him (the witness) that he liad to go before the grand jury, which wa.s in session at that time, and told witness that he had a pint of whisky, and that he wanted the witness to' keep the whiskey for him while he went before the grand jury; that the defendant handed the whiskey to witness, and then went before the grand jury, or went to the courthouse; that witness drank some of the whiskey which defendant had given him, and never returned the same to the defendant;” that witness did not pay the defendant for the whiskey, nor did the defendant offer to sell the whiskey to the wit
It is plain that, the evidence did not show either a sale, a. keeping for sale, or a. gift of the whiskey by the defendant. There was no evidence tending to show that the delivery of the whiskey was accompanied by an intention, on his part, to transfer to Cross the right of property and possession in the whiskey, or any part of it, for a consideration, or without a consideration.—Coker v. State, 91 Ala. 92, 8 South. 874; 4 Words & Phrases, 3092. It is equally plain that the defendant did not “otherwise dispose of” the whiskey, within the meaning of that part of the charge against him, unless those words, in the connection in which they are found, have been given by statute such an import as to make them cover a mere delivery of a prohibited liquor to another, unaccompanied by any intention on the part of the person so parting with its possession that the person to whom the delivery is made, or any one else other than the owner, may consume or use the whole or any part of it. Construction has been given to those words as used in statutes rendering it unlawful “to sell, giveaway, or otherwise dispose of spirituous, vinous or malt liquors.”—Amos v. State, 73 Ala. 498; Reynolds v. State, 73 Ala. 3; Norris v. Town of Oakman, 138 Ala. 411, 35 South. 450. In the opinion delivered in the case of Amos v. State, supra, the court, after referring to the rule which requires that the meaning of a word used in a statute must be construed in connection with
But there is a legislative expression as to the meaning to he given to those words as they were used in the indictment in this case. “The term otherwise dispose of following the Avords sold, offered for sale, kept fur sale, when employed in any Avarrant, process, affidavit, indictment, information or complaint, * * * shall include and he deemed to include barter, exchange,
Reversed and remanded.