State v. Seagraves

• Decision Date: 07 March 1905
• Parties: STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent, v. SEAGRAVES, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

85 S.W. 925

111 Mo.App. 353

STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent, v. SEAGRAVES, Appellant

Court of Appeals of Missouri, St. Louis

March 7, 1905

Appeal from Cape Girardeau Circuit Court.--Hon. Henry C. Riley Judge.

AFFIRMED.

Judgment affirmed.

Robert L. Wilson and Angelo Dempsey for appellant.

(1) The acts of the defendant constituted no defense either at common law or under the statutes. R. S. 1899, secs. 2240-2246; Roberts v. Barnes, 127 Mo. 115, 30 S.W. 113. (2) The burden of proof rests upon the State to prove the commission of a crime within the county limits. Janes v. State, 113 Georgia 272. (3) The evidence showed that the acts were committed outside of the county limits and within the territorial limits of the State of Illinois. (4) The boat at the time the acts were committed was engaged in interstate commerce and under Federal control. Such control was exclusive and the nonaction of the federal government in not providing regulations for the sale of liquors or to proscribe their sale on Sunday is a declaration to the effect that such sales are lawful. Ex parte Edgerton, 59 F. 115; Ex parte Jervey, 66 F. 957; Jervey v. Carolina, 66 F. 1013.

Thomas D. Hines for respondent.

(1) The Act of Congress of April 18, 1818, for the admission of Illinois into the Union, defined its western boundary as "the middle of the Mississippi river," provided that the State should have concurrent jurisdiction thereon with any State or States to be formed west thereof so far as the river formed a common boundary. 3 U. S. Stat. at Large 428, 546. This boundary was accepted by Missouri together with the proviso, as appears by the fundamental law. Const 1820, art. 10, sec. 2; Const. 1865, art. 11, sec. 2; Const. 1875, art. 1, sec. 1; Swearington v. Steamboat, 13 Mo. 519. (2) The Supreme Court of Iowa held that the laws of Iowa apply to a criminal offense committed on the Mississippi, east of the main channel, on a boat moored to the Illinois shore. State v. Mullen, 35 Iowa 199; Cooley v. Golden, 52 Mo.App. 235.

OPINION

BLAND, P. J.

The grand jury of Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, presented an indictment against defendant containing two counts: The first charged a violation of the dramshop act; the second charged defendant with having sold fermented and distilled liquors, in the county of Cape Girardeau, in the State of Missouri, on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, in violation of section 2243, Revised Statutes 1899. On the trial defendant was acquitted on the first count but was found guilty on the second by the court sitting as a jury.

The evidence shows that defendant fitted up an improvised but rude bar on the steamboat Warsaw, and on a Sunday when an excursion trip was made by the steamer on the Mississippi river, starting from the city of Cape Girardeau and running up and down the river opposite the county of Cape Girardeau, from behind his bar sold beer to the excursionists. No sales were made while the boat was at or near the Cape Girardeau shore, and it is not certain that any were made west of the middle of the channel of the river. The steamer Warsaw was a ferry boat plying between the city of Cape Girardeau on the Missouri side and East Cape Girardeau on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river. It was not engaged in the ferry business, however, on the Sunday it was carrying the pleasure party, all of whom were taken aboard on the Missouri side of the river and disembarked on the same side.

The court declared the law to be that, if the defendant sold beer on Sunday, as charged in the indictment, at a place on the Mississippi river opposite to and where the river runs along and adjacent to the county of Cape Girardeau, in the State of Missouri, the defendant should be found guilty, and refused to declare that it devolved on the State to show that a sale was made on the Missouri side and west of the center of the channel of the river.

Defendant's contention is that the jurisdiction of the Cape Girardeau Circuit Court does not extend beyond the low water mark of the river opposite the county of Cape Girardeau or, at the utmost, could not be extended beyond the middle of the main channel of the river. Section 2243, upon which the second count of the indictment is bottomed, makes it a misdemeanor punishable by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, for any person to sell or retail any fermented or distilled liquor on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday. The jurisdiction of the Cape Girardeau Circuit Court over the offense charged and proved is settled by the case of Sanders v. Steamboat Co., 97 Mo. 26, 10 S.W. 595, where, after reviewing the Act of Congress admitting the State...