Sisk v. State

• Decision Date: 19 February 1896
• Citation: 34 S.W. 277
• Parties: SISK v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

34 S.W. 277

SISK v. STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

February 19, 1896.

Appeal from county court, Parker county; J. L. L. McCall, Judge.

Mat Sisk was convicted of playing cards in a public place, and appeals. Reversed.

Mann Trice, for the State.

HURT, P. J.

The appellant was convicted for playing at a game with cards in a public place, and fined $10, and prosecutes this appeal.

The appellant complains that the court, in its charge, treated the livery stable (the alleged public place) as a public place; that is, he treated it as if the same had been defined in the statute, like an inn or tavern, as a public place, and did not submit this question to the jury. The language of the charge is as follows: "The law is, if any person shall play at a game with cards in any public house or office, such as an office for the transaction of business, or an inn, or tavern, or hotel, or livery stable, the same being where the business of such inn, tavern, hotel, or livery stable is transacted, when required, and to which the public, in transacting business with such an inn, tavern, hotel, or livery stable, resort to do such business, such person, so offending, shall be punished by a fine," etc. And, again, the court charges: "If, therefore, the jury believe, from the evidence, that the defendant, Mat Sisk, on or about the 15th day of February, 1895, in Parker county, Texas, did play at a game with cards in a livery stable, open for the transaction of livery business at the time, and to which the public resorted for the transaction of business, connected with the said livery stable, or if you believe that the defendant did, on or about said date, play at a game with cards in the office of a livery stable, the said office being the place commonly resorted to for the transaction of business connected with the business of the said livery stable, and which was at the time used as such office, for said livery stable, connected with and forming part of said stable, and commonly resorted to by the public for the above stated purposes, then you will find," etc.

We believe the charges in question subject to the criticism suggested by appellant in his assignment. A livery stable, or a room connected therewith, is not one of the places, eo nomine, where cards are prohibited by the statute to be played. But a livery stable may become a public place, according to its use as a business place, where the public resort for the transaction of business, to be...