Henderson v. State
| Decision Date | 06 October 1920 |
| Citation | 86 So. 439,80 Fla. 491 |
| Parties | HENDERSON v. STATE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to Circuit Court, Okaloosa County; A. G. Campbell, Judge.
James Henderson was convicted of breaking and entering a dwelling house, and he brings error.
Reversed.
Syllabus by the Court
'Dwelling house' no longer such, when left by occupant without intention of returning. A dwelling house loses its character as such, within the meaning of section 3281, General Statutes of Florida, providing punishment for breaking and entering a 'dwelling house,' when the occupant leaves it without the intention of returning to occupy it as a dwelling. [Ed. Note.--For other definitions, see Words and Phrases, First and Second Series, Dwelling House.]
COUNSEL Walter Kehoe, of Pensacola, and T. R. James, of Crestview, of plaintiff in error.
Van C. Swearingen, Atty. Gen., and D. Stuart Gillis, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Plaintiff in error was indicted, tried, and convicted upon the charge of breaking and entering a dwelling house. The offense was alleged to have been committed on March 1, 1919. The evidence shows that the person whose dwelling house was entered, according to the allegations of the indictment, did once live in the house, but on the 17th day of February, 1919, he moved from the house, which was near Laurel Hill, to a house at Culver. When he moved away, he left some quilts and clothes and other articles that belonged to his sister in the house, but she had moved away the day before.
Some time in February, when the former occupant of the house returned, it is not shown for what purpose, the articles belonging to his sister had been removed. They were afterwards found in defendant's possession, who said that he found them in a woods near his place, that they were in a sack, and wet, that he carried them home, spread them on his fence to dry, and then took them in the house.
The case is reversed, upon the authority of Smith v. State, 85 So. 911, decided at the present term, which holds that a dwelling house loses its character as such, within the meaning of the statute providing punishment for breaking and entering a dwelling house, if the occupant leaves without the intention of returning to occupy it as a dwelling.
Judgment reversed.
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Haynes v. State
... ... prove that the house charged to have been burglarized was the ... dwelling house of anyone, the prosecuting witness, Mrs ... Hollingsworth, having moved out of the house the afternoon ... before the burglary was committed that night ... Henderson ... v. State, 80 Fla. 491, 86 So. 439; Smith v. State, ... 80 Fla. 315, 85 So. 911 ... In ... order for a house to come within the common-law definition of ... a dwelling such as to constitute a breaking and entering ... therein burglary, it must be actually the dwelling of the ... ...
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Vazquez v. State, 76-714
...and entering a dwelling house if the occupant leaves without the intention of returning to occupy it as a dwelling. Henderson v. State, 80 Fla. 491, 86 So. 439 (1920). Last, even where the premises is classified as community property of the husband and wife and the husband abandons his wife......
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Hanley v. Bullard
... ... The record recites that ... on November 26, 1919, the motion was filed, but the notice ... bears no date. It, however, does state that 'complainant ... by counsel his this day filed motion to strike,' etc ... This indicates that both notice and motion were given and ... made ... ...
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Johnson v. State, s. 65--281
...confined to a mental hospital. The law of Florida is established in Smith v. State, 80 Fla. 315, 85 So. 911 (1920); and Henderson v. State, 80 Fla. 491, 86 So. 439 (1920). The Smith case 'Temporary absence of the occupant does not take away from a dwelling house its character as such, but i......