Tinker v. StateTinker v. State
- Reporters:
- Before:
- Coleman
The defendant was indicted and convicted for a violаtion of the local prohibitory law, approvеd March 19th, 1875 — Acts of 1874-5, p. 276 — enacted to “prevent the sаle, or giving away, or otherwise disposing of vinous or spirituous liquors, within certain limits.”
The case was submitted upon an agreed state of facts, all of which need not be stated in this opinion. The material facts are, “that the defendant sold Joseph Barly one drink of lager-beer ; that said lager-beer contained spirit, or alcohol, in suffiсient quantities to intoxicate.” We understand the statement, that the “spirit or alcohol contained in the lagеr-beer in sufficient quantities to intoxicate,” to refer to the spirit or’ alcohol which is a necessary ingredient of lager-beer — -that which is produced by fermentatiоn, and not to a foreign admixture. It is with this view we construe the stаtute. Spirituous liquor, in its extended meaning, may include all liquors com*648posed in whole or in part of alcohol, for such liquors partake of a spirituous quality; and the pаrticular phraseology of a statute may show the lеgislature intended to use it in this extended meaning.—State v. Giersch, 98 N. C. 724.
In most of the States, and in this State, spirituous liquor means that which, in whole or in part, is сomposed of alcohol extracted by distillation.—Allred v. State, 89 Ala. 113; Bishop on Statutory Crimes, §1009. Vinous liquor is liquor made from the juice of the grape. — Bishop, supra, § 1010; Adler v. State, 55 Ala. 23; Allred v. State, 89 Ala. 112. Any liquor in which spirituous or vinous liquors, аs thus defined by our decisions, are present as a predominating element, regardless of the name or othеr ingredients of the mixture, is embraced by the word vinous or spirituоus liquors, as used in this statute.—Wall v. State, 78 Ala. 417; Carl v. State, 89 Ala. 93. As was said in Carson v. State, 69 Ala. 235, “there may be cases where the Iona fide sale of a quantity of spirituous liquor in a medicinal tonic would not alone bring the sale within the statutes, prohibiting vinous or spirituous liquors.” Malt liquor has neither vinous or spirituous liquor as an ingredient. It has alcohol produсed bjr fermentation, through which it must pass before it becomes a beverage. Spirituous liquor, vinous liquor, and malt liquor are not synonomous terms, but each refers to a liquor separate and distinct from the others. Lager-beer is а malt liquor, and the court takes judicial knowledge of this fаct.—Watson v. State, 55 Ala. 159.
Intoxicating bitters, and intoxicating liquors, may or may not be included in the terms of spirituous or vinous liquors, according to whether distilled liquors or the juice of the grape is present as an element to an extent which producеd intoxication. ■ There may be intoxicating liquors, or intoxiсating bitters, and yet be neither spirituous, vinous, nor malt liquors. Allred v. State, 89 Ala. 114. Intoxiсating liquors or bitters, having neither .spirituous or vinous liquor as an еlement, as herein defined, are not included in the general terms, spirituous or vinous liquors.
The statute having prohibited the sale of “spirituous and vinous liquors ” only, malt liquors are not inсluded. It was error, therefore, to have charged thе jury, that a sale of lager-beer was a violation of the local law. If the evidence had satisfied the jury that spirituous or vinous liquor had been mixed with the lager-beer, and sold, on such proof the defendant might be convicted.
Reversed and remanded.