State v. Simons
| Decision Date | 18 April 1906 |
| Citation | 145 Ala. 95,40 So. 662 |
| Parties | STATE v. SIMONS. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Tuscaloosa County Court; H. B. Foster, Judge.
"To be officially reported."
Habeas corpus, on petition of F. F. Simons. From an order discharging petitioner from custody, the state appeals. Affirmed.
C. B Verner, M. T. Ormond, Daniel Collier, and W. T. McCrossin for the State.
Fitts & Fitts, for appellee.
The appellee was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of trespass after warning, and on a writ of habeas corpus was discharged from such imprisonment. From the order or judgment discharging the appellee, the state prosecutes this appeal.
The judge of the county court of Tuscaloosa, before whom the proceedings on habeas corpus were had, adjourned the hearing from the 27th day of October to the 30th, during which time he admitted the appellee to bail. This the judge was authorized to do, under section 4832 of the Code of 1896.
The offense of trespass after warning is a statutory offense. Code 1896, § 5606. The statute provides that "any person, who, without legal cause or good excuse, enters into the dwelling house, or on the premises of another, after having been warned, within six months preceding, not to do so," etc. If a legal cause or good excuse exists for entering on the premises, certainly the statute is not violated. There can be no doubt that it is within legislative competency to say what shall constitute a "legal cause or good excuse." The undisputed evidence showed that the appellee, Simons, was a civil engineer in the employment of the Pensacola, Alabama & Western Railway Company of Alabama a corporation organized under the general statutes approved October 2, 1903 (Gen. Acts 1903, p. 310), and as such under the directions of said company entered upon the premises in question solely for the purpose of making a preliminary survey of the proposed route or line of railway of said railway company. Section 9, p. 320, of the above act, for the purpose mentioned, authorizes an entry upon the premises of another, "but subject to liability for all damages done thereto." This authorization of the statute furnished to the appellee, in entering upon the premises for the purpose of making an examination and survey of the proposed line of railroad, "a legal cause and good excuse" as against a criminal prosecution under the statute. Code 1896, § 5606, for trespass after warning.
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