State v. Lowrance
| Decision Date | 09 May 1887 |
| Citation | 2 S.E. 367,97 N.C. 492 |
| Parties | STATE v. LOWRANCE. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from superior court, Catawba county.
Sections 1077, 1078, Code, forbid all dealers in intoxicating "drinks or liquors" to sell in any manner, or to give away, to any unmarried person under the age of 21 years knowing such person to be under that age, any such drinks or liquors, and makes it a misdemeanor and indictable to do so and give the father, or, if he be dead, the mother, guardian or employer, of any minor to whom such sale or gift shall be made, a right of action against the guilty party. Held, that the fact that the father of the minor authorized the sale did not furnish the defendant with any legal excuse or justification.
The Attorney General, for the State.
No counsel contra.
The defendant was a dealer in intoxicating liquors, and was indicted for giving one gill of such liquors to Daniel Brinkley, Jr., an unmarried person, knowing him at the time to be under the age of 21 years. He pleaded not guilty. On the trial he offered evidence to show that the father of the infant named gave the defendant his permission to give his said son the spirituous liquors for his use. The solicitor for the state, admitting that the witness would prove the fact, insisted that the father's permission would not be any legal excuse or justification for the defendant. The court so decided, and the defendant excepted. There was a verdict of guilty, and judgment thereupon for the state, and the defendant appealed to this court.
The statute (Code, §§ 1077, 1078) forbids, in strong, peremptory terms, all dealers in intoxicating "drinks or liquors" to sell in any manner, or to give away, to any unmarried person under the age of 21 years, knowing such person to be under that age, any such drinks or liquors, and makes it a misdemeanor and indictable to do so; and moreover, gives the father, or, if he be dead, the mother, guardian, or employer, of any minor to whom such sale or gift shall be made, a right of action against the guilty party; and, in an action brought upon the same, exemplary damages, not less than $25 may be recovered.
The plain purpose of this stringent statute is to protect, as far as practicable, all unmarried minors from the insidious and dangerous evils of drinking intoxicating drinks and liquors usually obtained from dealers in the same by sale or gift. It is at drinking places...
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