Allred v. State
| Decision Date | 18 June 1890 |
| Citation | 89 Ala. 112,8 So. 56 |
| Parties | ALLRED v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from circuit court, Dale county; J. M. CARMICHAEL, Judge.
Indictment against Dr. Allred for retailing liquors without a license.
W L. Martin, Atty. Gen., for the State.
The appellant was convicted under an indictment which charged him with engaging in or carrying on the business of retailing spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors, or intoxicating bitters without a license. The evidence went to show that he engaged in and carried on the business of selling a compound called "Busby's Bitters," which he sold in quantities less than a quart. The evidence also tended to show that this bitters was an intoxicating liquor, and was purchased from defendant to be used, and was used, as a beverage. It was not shown what ingredients entered into the composition of the bitters. It does not appear that it was composed of any part of either vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors. On this state of proof, the following charge was given at the instance of the state, and excepted to by the defendant: "If the defendant in this county, and within the time covered by the indictment, did engage in or carry on *** the business of selling intoxicating bitters, commonly called 'Busby's Bitters,' in a place of less than one thousand inhabitants, in quantity less than one quart, then the defendant is guilty, as charged, if it was purchased and used as a beverage." The giving of this charge was, in our opinion, an error for which the judgment must be reversed. The statute requires a license for engaging in the business of selling vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors. Code, § 629. The offense involved in carrying on such business without a license can of course only be committed by the sale of liquors of one or another of the classes specified. The liquor sold must be either "spirituous," "vinous," or "malt." We do not understand either of these terms to be synonymous with "intoxicating liquors," or "intoxicating bitters." "Spirituous liquors," technically and strictly, include all liquors which contain alcohol in appreciable quantities. In this sense, vinous and malt liquors are also spirituous, in that each contains spirits of alcohol. People v. Crilley, 20 Barb. 248; State v. Giersch, 98 N.C. 720, 4 S.E Rep. 193. But, in ordinary acceptation, the term "spirituous liquors" imports distilled liquors, and that the term is employed in this sense in the statute under consideration is manifest from the use of the superadded terms "vinous" and "malt," which have no office to perform unless the phrase "spirituous liquors" is confined to the definition which it has in common parlance, denoting liquids which are the result of distillation. Attorney General v. Bailey, 1 Exch. 281. "Vinous liquors" are such as are made from the fermented juice of the grape. Worley v. Spurgeon, 38 Iowa, 467; Adler v. State, 55 Ala. 24. The term "malt liquors" embraces porter, ale, beer, and the like, which are the result or product of a process by which grain, usually barley, is steeped in water to the point of germination, the starch of the grain being thus converted into saccharine matter, which is kiln dried, then mixed with hops, and, by a further process of brewing, made into a beverage. Liquor of either class may be intoxicating; but neither...
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Marks v. State
...or intoxicating is known to courts and juries, and proof thereof is not necessary. Tinker v. State, 90 Ala. 638, 8 So. 814; Allred's Case, 89 Ala. 113, 8 So. 56. liquor," ex vi termini, means liquor made from the juice of the grape; but it may include wines made from fruits or berries by a ......
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Espey By and Through Espey v. Convenience Marketers, Inc.
...by the statute, which addressed instead, the sale of "spirituous and vinous liquor." The Court, basing its holding on Allred v. State, 89 Ala. 112, 8 So. 56 (1890), held that "spirituous liquor means that which, in whole or in part, is composed of alcohol extracted by distillation." 90 Ala.......
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