State v. Morgan

• Decision Date: 10 February 1902
• Citation: 79 Miss. 659,31 So. 338
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE OF MISSISSIPPI v. RICHARD M. MORGAN

31 So. 338

79 Miss. 659

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI v. RICHARD M. MORGAN

Supreme Court of Mississippi

February 10, 1902

FROM the circuit court of, second district, Carroll county. HON WILLIAM F. STEVENS, Judge.

Morgan appellee, was prosecuted for obstructing a public road, was convicted in the justice's court, but the case on appeal was decided in his favor in the circuit court, and the state appealed to the supreme court. The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court. Code 1892, § 1145, upon which the prosecution was based, is as follows:

"1145 (2871). THE SAME; CUTTING TREES INTO OR OBSTRUCTING ROAD OR STREAM.--If any person shall fell any bush or tree into any public highway, or obstruct the same in any manner whatever or shall fell any bush or tree into a stream not less than one hundred and fifty feet wide, or obstruct the same in any way whatever, and shall not remove the obstruction immediately, it shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, the offender, in addition to the penalty recoverable by law, shall be fined not more than fifty dollars or be imprisoned not more than one week."

Affirmed.

Monroe McClurg, attorney-general, for appellant.

J. N. Flowers, for appellee.

OPINION

TERRAL, J.

The appellee was prosecuted upon a criminal charge before a justice of the peace of Carroll county, made in the following words:

"STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, CARROLL COUNTY: Before me, John C. Calhoon, a justice of the peace of the county aforesaid, Henry Bullock makes oath that on the 10th of September, 1901, R. M. Morgan obstructed the public highway known as the 'Midway and Blackmonton public road,' by felling bushes and trees across said road, and did not immediately remove the same, against public interest, and against the statute provided.

"HENRY BULLOCK.

"Sworn to and subscribed before me this 16th day of September, 1901.

"JOHN C. CALHOON,

"Justice of the Peace."

Being convicted upon this charge, he appealed to the circuit court, and was there tried anew. Upon the trial in the circuit court it appeared that the Midway and Blackmonton public road was laid out and established in pursuance of a petition of D. C. Brewer and seventeen other residents of beat 5 of Carroll county. There is nothing in said petition, or in the other proceedings of the board of supervisors of said county in the location and establishment of said road, to show that ten of said petitioners were freeholders or householders of said county, interested in said road, as is required by § 823, code 1880, under which said proceedings were had. Nor did said proceedings show that the commissioners appointed to mark and lay out said road were freeholders or householders, and residents of said county.

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