Caesar v. State
| Decision Date | 24 October 1905 |
| Parties | CAESAR v. STATE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to Circuit Court, Columbia County; B. H. Palmer, Judge.
Sam Caesar was convicted of illegal sale of liquor, and brings error. Affirmed.
Syllabus by the Court
The decisions of this court, as to the constitutionality of the title of chapter 4930, p. 58, Laws of 1901, and as to section 8 of said chapter (page 60), providing a form of indictment made in Brass v. State (Fla.) 34 So. 307, and Crabb v. State (Fla.) 36 So. 169, are followed and applied.
Applying the provisions of section 2893, Rev. St. 1892, where the omission of the word 'did' before the word 'engage' in an indictment, is plainly a mere clerical misprision, and where the meaning is perfectly clear from the context, and it appears that the defendant was not misled or embarrassed in making his defense, and will not be exposed to substantial danger of a new prosecution for the same offense this court will not reverse a judgment of conviction because of such omission.
COUNSEL Scarborough & Scarborough, for plaintiff in error.
Sam Caesar was indicted at the spring term of the circuit court of Columbia county for illegally selling liquor in that county. The indictment is in the following form, omitting the caption:
A motion was made to quash the indictment on the grounds, in substance, that it was vague and indefinite, that it charged no crime under the laws of Florida, that it does not allege that Columbia county had voted against the sale of liquors within two years, that the act charged was unlawful. This motion was overruled. The defendant was tried and convicted and then moved in arrest of judgment, which motion was overruled. After sentence he sued out a writ of error.
The assignments of error are:
(1) That the court erred in ruling the motion of plaintiff in error to quash the indictment.
(2) The court erred in overruling the motion of the plaintiff in error for an arrest of judgment.
In his brief here the plaintiff in error first attacks the constitutionality of the act under which the indictment was drawn, viz., chapter 4930, p. 58, Laws of 1901, on two grounds: First, that the act embraces two subjects; and, second, that the form of indictment provided in section 8 of the act, and which the indictment attempts to follow, does not inform the accused of the nature of the accusation against him.
Both of these propositions have been heretofore decided against the contention of the accused. See Brass v. State (Fla.) 34 South, 307; Crabb v. State (Fla.) 36 So. 169.
The next and only other point made in the brief is that in attempting to follow the form of indictment prescribed by section 8 of the act (chapter 4930, p. 60, Laws 1901) the pleader omitted the word 'did' before the word 'engaged,' and therefore that no criminal act is charged to have been committed. We are referred to decisions in several states, particularly in Texas and Louisiana, where it is held that the omission of the auxiliary word 'did' before the verb expressing the...
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