Lawson v. State
| Decision Date | 19 October 1940 |
| Parties | LAWSON v. STATE. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Error to Criminal Court, Bradley County; Sue K. Hicks, Judge.
Beecher Lawson was convicted for possessing whisky, and he brings error.
Affirmed.
W. E Benson, of Cleveland, for plaintiff in error.
Ernest F. Smith, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
Beecher Lawson, referred to herein as the defendant, has appealed to this court from a conviction for possessing whisky, his punishment being fixed at a fine of $500 and a jail sentence of sixty days.
Defendant operates the Blue Circle Inn in Bradley County. On November 18, 1939, a deputy sheriff of said county procured a warrant to search said place, the specific direction contained therein being as follows: "You are hereby commanded in the name of the State to make immediate search for intoxicating liquors by day or night of the person of said defendant and of the house or building on the premises located in 2nd Civil District of Bradley County, Tennessee and described as follows: A one story framed building with basement and bounded as follows: North by Creek, East by Creek, South by Haven, and West by Lee Highway."
This latter description evidently referred to the premises because the building sets back from the highway proper on a circle constructed for parking automobiles by patrons of the Inn. It is likely that this Inn gets its name from the fact of fronting on a circle, which is a very common custom in erecting buildings of this character. One of the officers testified that the automobile of defendant was parked in front of the Inn on the premises described in the warrant. The other officer testified that the defendant's automobile was parked in front of the building on a private driveway and not on the public road. On cross-examination he admits that he did not know where the dividing line between the highway and defendant's premises was located; but in view of what we have stated, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we think the court and jury were justified in finding that this automobile was parked on the premises of defendant and adjacent to this building.
The officers discovered no liquor in the Inn but found two and one half cases of stamped whisky, in pint and half-pint bottles, in defendant's automobile. The testimony of the officers was excepted to on the ground that the search was illegal because the warrant did not authorize or direct the officer to search the automobile of defendant.
In the opinion in Smith v. State, 155 Tenn. 40, 290 S.W. 4 the court emphasized the fact that it was only unreasonable searches that the constitution prohibited.
With respect to this constitutional prohibition this court, in Welch v. State, 154 Tenn. 60, 64, 289 S.W. 510, 511 said:
"It is obvious that it was intended to protect possessions in actual occupancy from unreasonable searches and seizures, whether real or personal, meaning thereby, as pointed out by Justice Cooley, that, when one desires to search the occupied premises of another, h...
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State v. Southall, No. M2006-01738-CCA-R3-CD (Tenn. Crim. App. 6/25/2007)
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