66 Conn. 551 | Conn. | 1895
This is an appeal for the revision of questions of law decided by the court below, in its charge to the jury. For the presentation of such questions a finding of sufficient facts to properly present the errors claimed to exist in the charge, is essential; and the trial judge is required to make such finding upon request of the appellant, but not without such request. General Statutes, §§ 1129, 1132. The questions of law relied upon must be specifically stated in the appeal; and in such an appeal as this the questions
These provisions of statute and rules of court must be followed, to entitle a party as of right to a finding, and to consideration in this court of the errors specified in the appeal. White Co. v. Howd, ante, p. 264.
The request of the present appellant consisted onty of a proposed finding, and did not contain any statement of the questions of law he desired to have reviewed. The trial judge might have refused to make any finding, unless the requests were properly amended. The judge, however, against the objection of the appellee, ruled that the requests for charge and the charge which were included in the proposed finding, might be construed as a sufficient request and statement of the questions of law, under the rules, and made a finding. We think the trial judge might well have ruled the other way. Possibly it would have been wiser if he had ruled against the appellant; such a practice would tend to an evasion of the law regulating appeals that might seriously limit its beneficial purpose.
The sufficiency of the request for a finding is a question to be passed upon by the trial judge. We do not discuss what remedy an appellee aggrieved by the decision on that question may have, because, if he has any remedy, it is not by plea in abatement to the appeal in this court, and the question of any other remedy is not before us, and has not been argued. We may fairly presume that, in view of recent decisions on this subject, the simple rules relating to appeals will be so followed that no question of this kind will arise hereafter.
In respect to these claims the defendant requested the court to charge the jury as follows:—
(1) “ If it appears that the name of the purchaser of intoxicating liquors is known to the law officers making a complaint, at the time of making the same, for the illegal sale of intoxicating liquor, the name of the purchaser must be given in the complaint, and if the sale in such case is charged as being made to a person unknown, then the defendant must be acquitted.
(2) “ If the complaint in this case was made for no particular offense of illegal selling and without any ¡rarticular offense in view, then the defendant must be acquitted.
Each of these requests was complied with. The judge charged the jury that the law was, in these respects, as stated by the defendant’s counsel. The defendant has appealed, and assigns as reasons for his appeal that the judge erred in the remarks he made to the jury in connection with the several requests. We have gone over the finding with considerable care, and are not able to concur with the appellant. In every case where a court is requested to instruct the jury as to a rule of law, the request, if granted, must be accompanied with such comments as will enable the jury to apply the rule to the facts claimed to be proved in the case. Wherever the facts are disputed, the rule of law must be stated to the jury, conditioned upon their finding the facts to be as claimed by the party making the request. This is what was done in the present case. Take the first request: the rule of law could only be applied if the jury found that the prosecuting officer at the time the information was drawn, knew the name of the person to whom the alleged sale of liquor was made. And the judge said to the jury, commenting upon the evidence on this part of the case, that they should not guess, but should be satisfied by the proof on this point, as upon any other question. So as to the second request: what was said was by way of illustration of the sort of a case to which that request would apply. It was said to aid the jury in making a proper application of the request to th'e facts claimed to be shown by the evidence before them. As to the third request, the remarks of the judge were well calculated to guide the jury to the right use of the rule stated.
We are not, however, prepared to commit ourselves unreservedly to the rule stated by the trial court in this case in the first request: that when any person is on trial upon an information for selling liquors without a license, which charges a sale to a person unknown, and it is shown that the name of the person to whom the alleged sale was made was known to the informing officers, the accused must be acquitted. That there are authorities to this effect is true; and very respectable ones. But whether it may not be successfully shown that these authorities rest upon an erroneous assumption, we desire to leave for future discussion if a case should ever arise.
It is true that the identification of the person upon or against whom a crime is committed, has always been considered as material to constitute the offense; and so the person aggrieved by the crime, or from whom property has been stolen, must be described by name, or, when that is impracticable, by the best description attainable ; but if the name of a third party be immaterial to constituting the offense, it may be rejected as surplusage. U. S. v. Howard, 3 Sumner, 12. But in this case the offense is a statutory misdemeanor, and consists in selling liquor without a license. The material facts that constitute the offense are two: the act of selling liquor, and the non-possession of a license. The kind, quantity, and value of the liquor, the person or persons who' purchase it, the manner and circumstances of selling it, may all in the course of the trial become material to the proof of the
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.