Briscoe Motor Car Co. v. State
| Decision Date | 13 May 1920 |
| Docket Number | 5 Div. 753 |
| Citation | 204 Ala. 231,85 So. 475 |
| Parties | BRISCOE MOTOR CAR CO. v. STATE. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Chilton County; B.K. McMorris, Judge.
The State of Alabama, on the relation of its solicitor, filed a bill to condemn and confiscate a Briscoe Motor Car, found in the possession of one J.H. Reeves, and alleged to have been used in transporting prohibited liquor. The Briscoe Motor Car Company intervened and filed claim to the car, and from a decree condemning the car it appeals. Reversed and rendered.
Thomas A. Curry, of Clanton, for appellant.
J.Q Smith, Atty. Gen., and Lamar Field, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
A Briscoe automobile, claimed by appellant, was condemned as contraband under the provisions of the act "to further suppress the evils of intemperance," approved January 25, 1919 (Gen. Acts, p. 6 et seq.), and its sale ordered. The claimant appeals. The automobile was seized by the sheriff of Chilton county while being used by J.H. Reeves and another to transport a large quantity of prohibited liquors through that county. The appellant, claimant, asserted its unqualified ownership of the car, and that the use of the car on this occasion was an wholly unauthorized appropriation of the car. The testimony was taken before the register, the court considering the cause upon the written evidence thus taken.
The evidence established appellant's ownership of the car. The evidence was also conclusive to these effects: That neither Reeves nor his companion was an agent or employé of the appellant, and that Reeves took the new car, just received, from in front of appellant's place of business in Montgomery, without the consent, notice, or knowledge of the owner of the car or of any agent or representative of the owner. The positive evidence of Beall and Finney, the former general manager and the latter a salesman of the appellant is to the effect that they did not know or have any knowledge of Reeves' or his companion's unlawful purpose to use the car in the transportation of prohibited liquors, and did not authorize or sanction such appropriation of the car. Reeves testified that he took the car on his own unaided initiative and without any authority whatsoever. These features of the testimony of the named witnesses were uncontradicted; and, unless its credibility was destroyed by other evidence, submitted by the state, forbade the condemnation of this...
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Edwards v. State
...of the legislative intent that innocent parties free from fault should not suffer loss through the wrong of another, as was said in Briscoe v. State, supra: "The act does not contemplate the condemnation property of those who do not aid or assist in the unlawful transporting of liquors, or ......
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Commercial Credit Co. v. State
... ... 104; State ex rel. Tate v. One ... Lexington Automobile, 203 Ala. 506, 84 So. 297; ... Bowling v. State, 204 Ala. 405, 85 So. 500; ... Briscoe Motor Car Co. v. State, 204 Ala. 231, 85 So ... 475; One Packard Automobile v. State, 204 Ala. 435, ... 86 So. 21; Glover v. State, 205 Ala. 446, ... ...
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Commercial Nat. Bank of Anniston v. State ex rel. Dormon
... ... Anderson v ... State, 246 Ala. 468, 20 So.2d 864 ... [251 ... Ala. 411] The car was sold by the Alabama Motor Company on ... November 13, 1947, to A. A. McElroy. The sale was financed at ... that time by a mortgage loan on the car made by the ... It was shown that A. A. McElroy ... lived in Cleburne County where he was engaged in operating a ... feed mill ... In ... Briscoe Motor Car Co. v. State, 204 Ala. 231, 85 So ... 475, this court, in speaking of the statute which provides ... for condemnation, said, 'the act ... ...
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Glover v. State
... ... One Paige Automobile, 85 So. 276), and upon the proof ... required these cases have been modified by subsequent ... decisions. Flint Motor Car Co. v. State, 85 So. 741; ... One Ford Automobile v. State, 84 So. 760: ... Bowling v. State, 85 So. 500; One Packard ... Automobile v. State, 86 So. 21; Briscoe Motor Car ... Co. v. State, 85 So. 475; Byles v. State, 87 ... They ... did not, however, qualify the first-named authorities as to ... ...