State v. Carson

• Decision Date: 09 June 1910
• Parties: STATE v. CARSON.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

147 Iowa 561

126 N.W. 698

STATE

v.CARSON.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 9, 1910.

Appeal from District Court, Clay County; D. F. Coyle, Judge.

The defendant was convicted of shipping game birds out of the state, and appeals. Affirmed.Geo. A. Heald, for appellant.

H. W. Byers, Atty. Gen., and Charles W. Lyon, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

SHERWIN, J.

The defendant delivered to the United States Express Company at one of its offices in this state a box of prairie chickens for transportation and delivery to a commission firm in Chicago, Ill. The box was properly billed to the address placed thereon by the defendant and loaded on the express car of the train on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company bound for Chicago. The box was taken from the express company and from the train at Marion, Iowa, by a deputy game warden of the state who acted under the authority of a search warrant. There were 41 undressed prairie chickens in the box. They were later disposed of in this state as provided by law.

The defendant was convicted under section 2555 of the Code, which provides that “no person * * * shall ship, take or carry out of this state” any game birds. He contends that, as the birds were taken from the express company while in this state, there was no shipment out of the state, and hence no violation of the law. He says, in effect, that the state authorities stepped in with a search warrant, and prevented the completion of a shipment which would have been unlawful if completed. We are of opinion that the delivery to the carrier for transportation to a point beyond the boundary of the state constituted a violation of the statute. The word “ship,” as therein used, must be given its usual and ordinary meaning, for there is nothing in the law itself which indicates a different legislative intent. The words “ship” and “shipment” are now generally used to express the idea of goods delivered to carriers for the purpose of being transported from one place to another, and such signification is given to them by lexicographers generally. Webster's International Dict.; the Century Dict. The law dictionaries give substantially the same definitions. See Abbott's, Bouvier's, and Rapalje & Lawrence's. The adjudicated cases are in general accord on the question. In a leading case in England, Bowes v. Shand, L. R. 2 App. Cas. 455, the court was unanimously of the opinion that the word “shipped” according to its natural and ordinary signification...