State v. Eckhardt

• Decision Date: 31 December 1910
• Citation: 133 S.W. 321,232 Mo. 49
• Parties: STATE v. ECKHARDT.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

133 S.W. 321

232 Mo. 49

STATE v. ECKHARDT.

Supreme Court of Missouri. Division No. 2.

December 31, 1910.

1. PARENT AND CHILD (§ 17)—ABANDONMENT OF CHILD—CONSTRUCTION OF STATUTE—GENERAL AND SPECIFIC WORDS—"OTHER PLACES."

Rev. St. 1899, § 1856 (Ann. St. 1906, p. 1282; Rev. St. 1909, § 4490), makes it an offense for any father or mother or any other person to whom a child under the age of six years has been confided to "expose such child in a street, field, or other place with intent wholly to abandon it." Held that, in construing the statute, the rule of ejusdem generis does not apply, and "other places" will not be limited in its meaning to places like a street or field ; and therefore an indictment charging accused with exposing a child under the age of six years in a certain street railway shelter or station with intent to unlawfully and feloniously wholly abandon such child charges an offense under the statute.

2. STATUTES (§ 194)—CONSTRUCTION—GENERAL AND SPECIFIC WORDS—"EJUSDEM GENERIS."

The doctrine of "ejusdem generis" is only a rule of construction to be applied as an aid in ascertaining the legislative intent, and does not control where it clearly appears from the statute as a whole that no such limitation was intended, nor does it apply where the specific words of a statute signify subjects greatly different from another, nor where the specific words embrace all objects of their class, so that the general words must bear a different meaning from the specific words or be meaningless.

3. STATUTES (§ 217)—CONSTRUCTION—INTENTION OF LEGISLATURE.

The fundamental rule in the construction of statutes is to ascertain and give effect to the intention of the Legislature, and, for the purpose of discovering such intent, it is proper to consider the history of the statute, the reason for its enactment, and the prior state of the law on the subject to which the statute relates.

4. PARENT AND CHILD (§ 17) — STATUTORY PROVISIONS — CONSTRUCTION — ABANDONMENT OF CHILDREN.

The word "expose," as used in such statute, means to turn or cast out, to place or leave in a probably fatal position, to abandon, and, so construed, the offense can be committed in a street railway shelter or station, as well as in a street or field.

Appeal from Circuit Court, St. Louis County; Jno. W. McElhinney, Judge.

Ida Eckhardt was convicted of exposing, with intent to abandon, a child under the age of six years, and appeals. Affirmed.

B. L. Matthews and Henry Higginbotham, for appellant. E. W. Major, Atty. Gen., and Chas. C. Revelle, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

GANTT and KENNISH, JJ.

Defendant and one Clara Shabulak were jointly indicted, charged with exposing, with intent wholly to abandon, a child under the age of six years, which child had been confided to them by a person or persons unknown. Defendant was thereafter duly arraigned, entered her plea of not guilty, and, upon her motion, a severance was granted. The trial resulted in a verdict of guilty; her punishment, being assessed at two years in the penitentiary. Her motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment having been overruled, defendant appealed from the judgment of conviction.

No bill of exceptions was filed in this case, and the only error assigned relates to the sufficiency of the indictment. The indictment is bottomed on section 1856, Rev. St. 1899 (Ann. St. 1906, p. 1282; section 4490, Rev. St. 1909), which is as follows: "If any father or mother of any child under the age of six years, or any other person to whom such child shall have been confided, shall expose such child in a street, field or other place, with intent wholly to abandon it, he or she shall, upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding five years, or in a county jail not less than six months." The charge in the indictment is "that Ida Eckhardt and Clara Shabulak, on the 13th day of August, A. D. nineteen hundred and eight, at said county of St. Louis, and state of Missouri, did then and there unlawfully and feloniously expose a certain child under the age of six years, to wit, of the age of fourteen days, in a certain street railway shelter or station, with intent to unlawfully and feloniously wholly abandon said child, said child having been confided to them, the said Ida Eckhardt and Clara Shabulak, by person or persons unknown, contrary to the form of the statute," etc.

Defendant contends that the place of exposure and abandonment "must be a street or field, or like place," where the exposure is as great or greater than if in a field or street, and not in a place of shelter as charged in the indictment. By this contention we understand the defendant to invoke the doctrine of ejusdem generis, a familiar rule of construction, that, where general words follow the enumeration of particular classes of persons or things, the general words will be construed as applicable only to persons or things of the same general nature or class as those enumerated. "The rule is based on the obvious reason that, if the Legislature had intended the general words to be used in their unrestricted sense, they would have made no mention of the particular classes. ...