State v. Holl Miller,
| Decision Date | 20 September 1921 |
| Citation | 89 W.Va. 84 |
| Parties | State v. Holl Miller, |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
1. Intoxicating Liquors Word "Liquors" in Prohibition Statutes, is Limited to Beverages Referred to Therein. The word "liquors" used in the prohibition statutes is limited in its meaning, and includes only such beverages as are referred to in section one of that law. (p. 85).
2. Indictment and Information Indictment in Form Prescribed
by Act is Good on Demurrer.
An indictment for a violation of the prohibition law in the
form prescribed by section three of chapter 108 of the Acts of 1919 is good on demurrer, (p. 85).
3. Same Two or More Offenses of Same General Nature May be
Joined in Indictment.
Joinder of two or more offenses of the same general nature in an indictment is not good ground of demurrer, (p. 86).
(Lynch, Judge, absent.)
Case certified from Circuit Court, Roane County.
Holl Miller was indicted for violation of the prohibition law. The demurrer to the indictment was overruled, and the case certified.
Affirmed.
E. T. England, Attorney General, R. A. Blessing, Assistant Attorney General, and John W. Lance, prosecuting attorney, for the State.
Thos. P. Ryan, for defendant.
Ritz, President:
Defendant was indicted in the circuit court of Roane county upon the charge that he did unlawfully sell, give, offer, expose, keep and store for sale and gift, liquors. A demurrer to the indictment was overruled, and the questions arising thereon certified to this court.
The indictment is in the form prescribed by section three of chapter 108 of the Acts of 1919. The ground of the demurrer is that the indictment does not necessarily charge an offense, for the reason that the word "liquors" which the defendant is charged with having dealt in, is too uncertain to make him guilty of any crime under the law; and, second, that the indictment is bad for duplicity, in that several separate offenses are charged therein.
It is quite true that the word liquors used in this indictment in its broad sense may include other substances than those referred to in the statute, but this form of indictment is prescribed by the law itself. The word liquors used in the prohibition statutes has a well defined significance. Section one defines the term, and it says just what it means when used in that law. No matter what the word may signify in other connections, its meaning in the prohibition laws is clearly and definitely determined by the language of section one. The legislature determined to inhibit the manufacture and sale of a number of different beverages, and for convenience adopted one term which included all or any of them, and this is the use made of the word liquors in the law, so that when the word liquors is used it is limited in its meaning to the...
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...on the ground that the count is faulty because it charges the commission of two or more offenses of the same general nature. State v. Miller, 89 W.Va. 84, pt. 3 syl., 108 S.E. 487. See also State v. Digman, 121 W.Va. 499, 5 S.E.2d 113. In State v. Vaughan, 93 W.Va. 419, 117 S.E. 127, 128, t......
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