State v. Noble

• Decision Date: 30 November 1926
• Parties: STATE v. NOBLE.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

250 P. 833

119 Or. 674

STATE v. NOBLE.

Supreme Court of Oregon, En Banc.

November 30, 1926

Appeal from Circuit Court, Union County; J. W. Knowles, Judge.

George Noble was convicted of driving an automobile on a public street while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, and he appeals. Affirmed.

Upon trial by jury in the justice's court for the district of La Grande, the defendant was convicted of the crime of driving an automobile on a public street of that city while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. He appealed to the circuit court for Union county, where he was again tried and convicted, and was sentenced to pay a fine in the sum of $500, and to be imprisoned in the county jail for a period of six months. The case is now here upon an appeal from the latter judgment.

Our statute (chapter 182, § 1, Laws 1925) declares that:

"It shall be unlawful for any person, while in an intoxicated condition, or under the influence of intoxicating liquor to drive, operate or run upon or over any * * * street * * * within the state * * * any automobile. * * *"

The court charged the jury:

"That the state was not required to prove that the defendant was drunk at the time and place charged in the complaint," that "there are varying degrees of being under the influence of intoxicating liquor," and that if they should find that the defendant, at the time and place charged, was "driving his automobile while under the influence of intoxicating liquor to any degree," that would be sufficient to establish his guilt.

Defendant excepted to the giving of the foregoing instruction, and also to the refusal of the court to charge that "in law drunkenness and intoxication are synonymous terms" and "have the same legal meaning, and that a person is said to be under the influence of intoxicating liquor when he is drunk or intoxicated." and to the refusal of the court to charge that:

"In a legal sense a person is drunk or intoxicated when he is so far under the influence of intoxicating liquor that he is not entirely at himself physically or mentally, and his unusual appearance, flushed face, and staggering walk attracts the attention of others, and in law a man is not under the influence of intoxicating liquor when his drinking does not affect or disturb his mental or physical faculties."

Defendant also excepted to the court's ruling in sustaining an objection to the following question, propounded by defendant's counsel on the cross-examination of one of the state's witnesses:

"Q. Now, as a matter of fact, Mr. Pierce, instead of you first noticing him get out of the car and start to walk, as a matter of fact it was your habit of going to George Noble and stopping him wherever you saw him?"

And to the court's denial of the following offer made concerning said witness:

"We offer to show by this witness, as showing the motive of the witness, that the witness George Pierce, on many different occasions within 30 days prior to the arrest, had stopped George Noble, and on the public streets and highways, and searched George Noble and his car, and on one occasion crowded him practically off the road, and made such search and it was the habit of George Pierce to stop the defendant George Noble, to search him and his car, when he would meet him."

Green &amp Hess, of La Grande, for appellant.

Carl G Helm, of La Grande, for the State.

RAND, J. (after stating the facts as above.)

The statute of this state makes it unlawful for any person to drive an automobile upon a public street while (1) "in an intoxicated condition;" or (...