74 Colo. 81 | Colo. | 1923
delivered the opinion of the court.
The amount in controversy is small. The Attorney General says the principal reason for bringing the case here
The following definitions of “brother” — and a similar definition, of course, is equally applicable to “sister,” the one being correlative of the' other, — are' taken from the lexicographers and law dictionaries:
1 Bouvier’s Law Dictionary: “Brother. He who is born from the same father and mother with' another, or from one or them only.”
Black’s Law Dictionary, 154: “Brother. One person is a brother ‘of the whole blood’ to another, the former being a male, when both are born from the same father and mother. He is a brother ‘of the half blood’ to that other, (or half-brother) when the two are born to the same father by different mothers, or by the same mother to different fathers.”
Century Dictionary: 1. “Brother. A male person in his relation to another person or other persons of either sex born of the same parents; a male relative in the first degree of descent or mutual kinship.
2. A male person in his relation to any other person or persons of the same blood or ancestry.”
Webster defines sister: “A female person, * * * considered in her relation to another person, * * * having the same parents (whole sister), or one parent in common (half sister).”
It is a fundamental rule of construction that a legislature is presumed to have intended words in their known and commonly accepted signification. Kennedy v. People, 9 Colo. App. 490, 49 Pac. 373. That “brother and sister,”
The rule is familiar that the defendant is given the benefit of the doubt in construing criminal statutes, or words in a statute which he is charged with having violated. Even in such cases the words “brother” and “sister,” when used without qualification, are given the same construction as where these words appear in civil statutes. In State v. Wyman, 59 Vt. 527, 8 Atl. 900, 59 Am. Rep. 753, in an indictment for incest, it was held that “brother” in the statute includes a brother of the half blood. It was there contended by the defendant that brother in the statute was not broad enough to cover a brother of the half blood. The court said that it was.
In Shelly v. State, 95 Tenn. 152, 31 S. W. 492, 49 Am. St. Rep. 926, it was held that “sister” as used in the statute defining incest, includes “half sister.” In Burdue v. Com
The judgment of the County Court, being in accordance with our views, is affirmed.
Mr. Chief Justice Teller and Mr. Justice Sheafor concur.