State v. Myers

• Citation: 20 Mo. 409
• Parties: THE STATE, Appellant, v. MYERS, Respondent.
• Decision Date: 31 January 1855
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

20 Mo. 409

THE STATE, Appellant,

v.MYERS, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

January Term, 1855.

1. An indictment under the thirtieth section of the act concerning ““school lands,” (R. C. 1845,) which charged the defendant with committing ““waste, trespass and other injury,” &c., “by cutting down and carrying away timber,” &c., is not bad for duplicity.

Appeal from Sullivan Circuit Court.

Gardenhire, (attorney general,) for the State.

No appearance for respondent.

RYLAND, Judge delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant, Valentine S. Myers, was indicted at the April, term, 1854, of the Circuit Court of Sullivan county, for trespassing upon school land. At the October term following, the defendant appeared and filed his motion to quash the indictment. This motion was sustained, and the court quashed the indictment. The circuit attorney excepted to the ruling of the court, filed his bill of exceptions, and brings the case here by writ of error. The indictment, then, raises the only point for our consideration.

1. The indictment charges that “Valentine S. Myers, on, &c., at, &c., with force and arms unlawfully did commit waste and trespass and other injury upon certain school lands, situated in the county of Sullivan, in the state of Missouri, and then and there known and designated as section sixteen, in township sixty-one, of range twenty-one, by then and there unlawfully cutting down divers, to-wit, fifty timber trees, and fifty other trees, then and there standing and growing upon said lands and did then and there unlawfully carry away the timber and wood of said trees, contrary,” &c.

The defendant's reasons, in support of his motions to quash, are, because “the indictment is double in charging different offences under the same in one count. It is uncertain and insufficient, and does not properly charge any offence under the statute in such cases.”

The section of the act upon which this indictment was found, is as follows: Sec. 30. “If any person shall commit waste, trespass or other injury upon any school lands in the state, or upon any improvements thereon, the person so offending shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars.” (R. C. 1845, tit. “School Lands.”)

The indictment charges that the defendant did commit waste and trespass and other injury upon the sixteenth section, by cutting down fifty timber trees and fifty other trees, and did then and there unlawfully carry away the timber and wood of...