Badgett v. State
| Decision Date | 17 December 1908 |
| Citation | 48 So. 54,157 Ala. 20 |
| Parties | BADGETT v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Criminal Court, Jefferson County; Samuel L. Weaver Judge.
Will Badgett was convicted of selling liquor without license, and appeals. Reversed and remanded.
The affidavit charges that "Will Badgett engaged in or carried on the business of a retail dealer in spirituous vinous, or malt liquors, in the town of Brookside, of less than 1,000 inhabitants, without a license and contrary to law, against the peace and dignity," etc. The court adjudged that defendant was guilty as charged in the affidavit, and fixed his punishment at six months' hard labor for the county, together with the costs in that behalf expended.
Alexander M. Garber, Atty. Gen., for the State.
The affidavit upon which the defendant was tried and convicted was sued out on the 29th day of February, 1908, and in terms charges a violation of the revenue statute (section 5476 of the Code of 1896). The case was tried in the criminal court of Jefferson county without a jury. There is no bill of exceptions in the record, but the judgment entry recites that "after hearing the evidence the court is satisfied that the defendant is guilty as charged in the affidavit."
The only punishment prescribed by the statute for the offense charged in the affidavit, and which the court could legally have imposed, was a fine of thrice the amount of the license fee required to be paid for carrying on the business indicated; but it is manifest that the punishment here awarded by the court is that prescribed by the prohibition law which prevails in Jefferson county--a punishment wholly inappropriate upon conviction for the offense charged; and from this circumstance it might well be inferred that the defendant was really tried and convicted for violating the prohibition law. If prohibition was in force in the territory where the sale or sales were made, at the time they were made, then the affidavit charges no offense, for the reason that a license to carry on the business of a retail liquor dealer could not have been legally issued in a prohibition district; and if the evidence developed that the sale for which the defendant was convicted was made in a prohibition district, then he was entitled to his acquittal. Cost's Case, 96 Ala. 60, 11 So. 435.
Courts take judicial knowledge of prohibition statutes; and we judicially know that general...
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...of averment, the courts of this state take judicial notice of public acts of the Legislature, though local in application. Badgett v. State, 157 Ala. 20, 48 So. 54; McCarver v. Herzberg, 120 Ala. 523, 25 So. Grider v. Tally, 77 Ala. 422, 54 Am. Rep. 65. In cases where the Legislature may en......
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