73 Ala. 18 | Ala. | 1882
— The indictment is founded on the statute (Code of 1876, § 4369), rendering it a misdemeanor to “buy, sell, receive, barter, or dispose of any cotton, corn, wheat, oats, peas, or potatoes, after the hour of sunset and before the hour of sunrise of the next succeeding day,” with an exception of sales, not now material to be noticed.
The question now raised is, whether the agent of a mortgagee, receiving seed-cotton from the mortgagor, the subject of the mortgage, within the prohibited hours, is guilty of the statutory offense. The words of the statute are plain and unambiguous ; and no rule is more firmly established than that which pronounces that, vdien a statute is plain and unambiguous, whether expressed in limited or general terms, the legislature shall be intended to mean what they have plainly expressed; and, of consequence, there is no room left for construction. One of the acts plainly denounced is receiving either of the agricultural products enumerated, within the prohibited hours; not more plainly denounced is the act of buying, or of selling, or of bartering such products within that period. There is no more
There is no error in the record, and the judgment must be affirmed.