77 Iowa 135 | Iowa | 1889
It is claimed that the verdict is not supported by the evidence. It appears from the record that the defendant is a registered pharmacist,and that on the sixteenth day of December, 1886, he obtained a permit from the board of supervisors of Washington county, authorizing him to sell intoxicating liquors for medicinal puiposes only. He is a practicing physician,
The defendant testified as a witness 'in his own behalf, and he stated that he made all the sales in good faith, after consultation with the purchasers as to their physical condition, and in the honest belief that the purchases were made for the actual necessities of medicine. There was no evidence of any excessive shipments of liquor to the defendant during the time named, and no other fact in the record from which any inference can be drawn that the sales were not made in strict accordance with the law.
The finding that the defendant had reason to believe that the applications to purchase were not made in good faith is contrary to every fact testified to by every witness in the case. It is equivalent to a finding that all the witnesses, for the state, as well as the defendant, were wilful and corrupt perjurers. Verdicts must be founded on facts, and not upon mere suspicion.
Reversed.