54 N.H. 164 | N.H. | 1873
I. Upon the pleadings in this case we must take the facts to be, that on August 27, 1873, when the warrant was issued by virtue of which the liquors in controversy and the vessels containing
By the warrant the officer was directed, by virtue of the Gen. Stats., ch. 237, sec. 1, cl. 4, in the day time, with proper assistants, to enter into the dwelling-house of Doonan, and there diligently search in and about the same, and, by virtue of the Gen. Stats., ch. 99, sec. 23, if he should find the liquors on such search, to take and detain them, and the vessels containing them. That before he could reach the place in which he was directed to search, the liquors had been removed to a wagon from which they might be lawfully taken by virtue of a warrant to seize without any warrant to search, could not deprive the officer of authority to take them upon a warrant that authorized both seizure and search. If liquors thus going from one place of concealment to another could not be seized on the way without another warrant, they might be transported from place to place to an unlimited extent, in full view of the officer, being removed from each successive place of concealment before a warrant to search in that particular place could be procured. The claimant relies on Commonwealth v. Intoxicating Liquors, 99 Mass. 334, as decisive in his favor; but in that case the officer unlawfully searched for the liquors and found them in a place not properly described in his warrant, while in this there does not appear to have been any unlawful search.
Had these liquors reached a place of concealment in the claimant’s dwelling-house, and had the officer made search for them and seized them there instead of in a place where no search was necessary, the constitutional question discussed by his counsel respecting the right of search would have arisen.
II. In the warrant the liquors are described as “ certain spirituous and intoxicating liquors, to wit, rum, gin, brandy, whiskey, wine, alcohol, and ale.” It has been suggested that the description “ was not so particular in the warrant that the liquors taken from the wagon of Blood could be
Demurrer overruled.