56 Ind. 79 | Ind. | 1877
Indictment against Stribbling for trespass, under section 14, 2 R. S. 1876, p. 468. The part of the section upon which the indictment is founded, is as follows : “ Every person * * •* who without such license shall cut down or remove from any such lands or from lands belonging to the United States, any tree, stone, timber, or other valuable article, shall be deemed guilty of a trespass, and upon conviction shall be fined,”etc.
The effective words in the indictment are as follows: “ That one Silas Stribbling, late of said county, on the 10th day of April, A. D. 1875, at said county and State, did then and there unlawfully remove two hundred and eighty rails, from a fence-standing upon the lands of one Frederick C. Brougher, situate in the said county of Jennings; the said rails, then and there, being the property of said .Frederick C. Brougher, and, then and there, being of the value of five dollars; he, the said Stribbling, not, then and there, having license so to do.”
A motion to quash the indictment, made by the appellant, was overruled by the court, and exceptions taken; and this ruling, we think, presents the decisive question in the case. Further proceedings were had, resulting in a conviction of the appellant, from which he appeals.
The sufficiency or insufficiency of an indictment may he tested by the answer to the following question: Can the facts, properly alleged in the indictment, he true, and
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded, with instructions to sustain the motion to quash the indictment.