State v. Maryland Club

• Decision Date: 26 April 1907
• Citation: 66 A. 667,105 Md. 585
• Parties: STATE v. MARYLAND CLUB.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

66 A. 667

105 Md. 585

STATE v. MARYLAND CLUB.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

April 26, 1907

Appeal from Criminal Court of Baltimore City; Henry D. Harlan Judge.

The Maryland Club was indicted for selling intoxicating liquors on Sunday. From a judgment dismissing the prosecution rendered on the overruling of a demurrer, interposed bye the state to special pleas, the state appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Argued before BOYD, PEARCE, BURKE, SCHMUCKER, and ROGERS, JJ.

Albert S. J. Owens and William S. Bryan, Jr., Atty. Gen., for the State.

Morris A. Soper and Bernard Carter, for appellee.

BURKE J.

The Maryland Club, a bona fide social organization, incorporated under the laws of Maryland, was indicted in the criminal court of Baltimore on the 12th day of December, 1906, for the offense of selling and furnishing intoxicating liquors on Sunday, November 25, 1906, in the city of Baltimore, to a certain person whose name was unknown to the grand jurors. The indictment contained four counts. The first count charged that the Maryland Club, "a body corporate, duly incorporated, late of said city, on the 25th day of November in the year one thousand nine hundred and six, at the city aforesaid, the said day in the said year being the Lord's Day, commonly called 'Sunday,' and being then and there a body corporate, duly incorporated, in said state of Maryland, and being then and there a club, and being then and there a licensee of the said state under the name of the 'Maryland Club,' then and there licensed, as aforesaid, to sell, offer for sale, and keep for sale intoxicating liquors by retail by the drink in said city and, not being then and there a hotel keeper, unlawfully did then and there sell and furnish intoxicating liquors to a certain person to the jurors aforesaid unknown, contrary to the form of the act of assembly in such case made and provided, and against the peace, government, and dignity of the state." The second count alleges that the Maryland Club was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland passed in the year 1858, and sets out in full the act of incorporation. It then sets out an act of the General Assembly of Maryland, known as chapter 22, p. 19, Acts 1892, by which the original charter of the Maryland Club was amended. It then alleges that the said Maryland Club "during all of the time aforesaid was, and still is, such corporation and body corporate as aforesaid, and that on the 25th day of November, in the year nineteen hundred and six, at the city of Baltimore, in the state of Maryland, said Maryland Club was, and still is, such corporation and body corporate duly incorporated as aforesaid, and was on the said last-mentioned day, and still is, at the city aforesaid, a club and licensee of said state licensed to sell, offer for sale, and keep for sale intoxicating liquors by retail by the drink in said city of Baltimore, and, not being then and there on said 25th day of November in said year, nineteen hundred and six, at the city aforesaid, a hotel keeper, unlawfully at the city aforesaid, did on the said last-mentioned date, to wit, November 25th, nineteen hundred and six, the last-mentioned day being the Lord's Day, commonly called 'Sunday,' sell and furnish at the city aforesaid intoxicating liquors to a certain person whose name is to the jurors aforesaid unknown, contrary to the form of the act of Assembly in such case made and provided, and against the peace, government, and dignity of the state." The third count alleges that the said Maryland Club, "a body corporate, duly incorporated, on the said 25th day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and six, at the city aforesaid, the said day in the said year, being the Lord's Day and Sabbath Day, commonly called 'Sunday,' and being then and there a body corporate, duly incorporated, and being then and there a club, society, and association, and a licensee of the said state, under the name of the Maryland Club, then and there licensed to sell, offer for sale, and keep for sale intoxicating liquors by retail by the drink in said city, and not being then and there a hotel keeper, unlawfully did sell and furnish on the said last-mentioned day in the said year, at the city aforesaid, intoxicating liquors to a certain person whose name is to the jurors aforesaid unknown, contrary to the form of the act of Assembly in such case made and provided, and against the peace, government, and dignity of the state." The fourth count charges that said Maryland Club, "a body corporate, duly incorporated, on the said 25th day of November, in the year nineteen hundred and six, at the city aforesaid, the said last-mentioned day in the said year being the Lord's Day, commonly called 'Sunday,' and being the Sabbath Day, and the said Maryland Club being then and there a corporation, duly incorporated, and being then and there a club, society, and association, and then and there a licensee of the said state, under the name Maryland Club, then and there licensed to sell, offer for sale, and keep for sale intoxicating liquors by retail by the drink in said city, and not being then and there a hotel keeper, unlawfully did then and there sell, furnish, and dispose of certain spirituous and fermented liquors, cordials, lager beer, wine, cider, and intoxicating liquors to a certain person whose name is to the jurors aforesaid unknown, contrary to the form of the act of Assembly in such case made and provided, and against the peace, government, and dignity of the state." To this indictment the defendant filed two special pleas, to each of which the state demurred. The demurrer of the state to each of said special pleas was overruled by the court, and, the state declining to traverse the pleas, judgment was entered that the traverser, the Maryland Club, be dismissed and discharged from said indictment. From this judgment the appeal now before us was taken.

The special pleas filed by the Maryland Club are quite lengthy and only the substance of the first plea need be stated, as the identical defense presented by the first plea is relied on under the second. It sets out Acts 1858, p. 121, c. 95, by which it was incorporated, and by which it appears that "an association of citizens has been formed in the City of Baltimore, under the title of the Maryland Club, having for its object the promotion of regulated social intercourse among its members, and the extension of hospitable courtesies to strangers"; that upon the passage of said act of incorporation the corporation thereby created, and as thereby authorized, organized itself as a social club for the accomplishment of the objects set forth in its said charter, committing the administration of said club to a board of 25 governors, and began to exercise the rights and privileges granted to it thereby, and continued in the exercise of the same up to and including the year 1892, in which year its charter was amended by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland, being chapter 22, p. 19, of the Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland of 1892. The amended charter is then set forth, and it is then alleged that, "after the passage of said last-mentioned Act of Assembly, the said corporation, the Maryland Club, continued in the exercise of the rights and privileges granted to it by its original charter and the aforesaid amendment thereof, and was in the exercise thereof at the times mentioned in the several counts of the indictment, and after the passage of the said act of assembly of Maryland of 1892 (Acts 1892, p. 19, c. 22), the said Maryland Club for the better accomplishment of the purposes of a social club, for the accomplishment of which it has been created and organized, did, at great cost and expense, erect and provide for the use of its members a large building situated at the southeast corner of Charles and Eager streets in the city of Baltimore, containing parlors, sitting rooms, sleeping rooms, reading rooms, library, billiard rooms, dining rooms, a café and restaurant, a large and commodious kitchen, storerooms for articles of food, wines, liquors, beers, and cigars, and other rooms adapted to the proper use of a first-class social club; and furnished and equipped said house and rooms with articles suitable and adapted to the use of its members as a place where they may meet from day to day and have the conveniences and advantages of a first-class social club; that a large number of the members of the club from time to time, as well on week days as on Sundays, get their meals in the said club building, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner; that the membership of said club is divided into two classes, designated as 'resident members' and 'nonresident members,' the resident members being those who reside in the city of Baltimore, and the nonresident members being those who reside elsewhere; that at the times mentioned in said indictment the number of its resident members was approximately 482, and its nonresidents 176; that the initiation fees of each resident member is $150, and of each nonresident member $50, and the annual dues paid by each of the resident members is $75, and by each of the nonresident members $36; that from the said fees and dues the said Maryland Club derives an annual revenue each year of more than $40,000; that in the conduct of its affairs, and for the purpose of carrying out the objects for which it was incorporated, the said Maryland Club serves and furnishes articles of food, meals, wines, liquors, beers, and cigars, which liquors, wines, and beers are known as intoxicating liquors, wines, and beers, to those of its members who from time to time ask to be served and furnished therewith, at times furnishing said intoxicating liquors to members with meals and at times...