State v. Skolfield
| Decision Date | 23 December 1893 |
| Citation | 86 Me. 149,29 A. 922 |
| Parties | STATE v. SKOLFIELD. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
Exceptions from supreme judicial court Franklin county.
J. O. S. Skolfield was convicted, before a Justice, of selling trout out of season, and appealed. On trial by a jury, he was found guilty, and motion for arrest of judgment was denied, and defendant excepts. Exceptions overruled.
The following was the complaint: "A. M. Child, of Weld, in the county of Franklin, and state of Maine, in behalf of said state, on oath complains that J. O. S. Skolfield, of said Weld, did sell to Eben Newman, of said Weld, trout, on the ninth day of April, A. D. 1892, at said Weld, against the peace of the state, and contrary to the statute in such case made and provided."
Having appealed to this court, where he was tried before a jury, and found guilty, the defendant moved an arrest of judgment for the following reasons, viz.:
(1) Because he says that the said complaint, and the matter therein alleged, in the manner and form in which they are therein stated, are not sufficient in law for any judgment to be rendered thereon.
(2) No crime or offense is charged in the complaint.
(3) Everything charged in the complaint may be true, and still the respondent may be innocent.
(4) The complaint does not allege, by any apt words, that the act complained of was unlawful.
(5) The complaint does not allege that the trout were illegally caught.
(6) The complaint does not set forth whether the trout were blue-backed trout or other kind of trout.
(7) It does not appear from the complaint that the respondent was not legally engaged in the artificial culture and maintenance of fishes, and did not sell trout from his own inclosed waters for cultivation and propagation.
(8) The complaint does not set forth where the trout were taken or caught.
The motion was overruled by the presiding justice, and the defendant took exceptions.
Geo. L. Rogers, Co. Atty., for the State. B. W. Whitcomb, for defendant.
By Rev. St. c. 40, § 49, it is provided that no person shall sell "any trout" during close time, with a certain penalty therefor. The complaint in this case avers that the respondent "did sell trout" to one Eben Newman within the period of close time. Certain objections are urged against the validity of the complaint.
It is contended that the complaint is too general in its description of the quantity of trout sold; but the statute is as general as are the words of the complaint. This objection cannot prevail State v. Hadlock, 43 Me. 282; Com. v. Ryan, 9 Gray, 137.
It is objected that the complaint is defective, in that it does not aver that the sale did not come within certain other statutes and sections which permit the taking and selling of trout within close time, under certain conditions and restrictions. The answer to this objection is that any...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Blais
...be necessary to use it (the word "unlawfully"), is where it is a part of a description of a statute offense." See also State v. Skolfield, 86 Me. 149, 29 A. 922 (1893); State v. Parker, 132 Me. 137, 167 A. 854 (1933). Section 201, Title 17, in defining an assault and an assault and battery ......
-
State v. Alley
...by the statute, to bring it forward in his defense.' Guerney was followed in State v. Boyington, 56 Me. 512, 514 and State v. Skolfield, 86 Me. 149, 152, 29 A. 922, where the rule was even more clearly reiterated, and most recently in Toussaint v. State, Me., 262 A.2d 123, (Opinion filed Fe......
-
State v. Chase
...State v. Tibbetts and State v. Haley, 86 Me. 189, 191, 29 A. 979. See also State v. Merrill, 132 Me. 103, 167 A. 172, and State v. Skolfield, 86 Me. 149, 29 A. 922. It is to be noted, however, that although this indictment uses the phrase 'feloniously, wilfully and of his malice aforethough......
-
State v. Lowry
... ... An ... unlawful possession is charged, but the use of the word ... "unlawful" is assailed by appellant as a mere ... conclusion. The word "unlawful" is a necessary part ... of every indictment or complaint when the statute uses it in ... describing the offense. (State v. Skolfield, 29 A ... 922; State v. Concord, 29 N.H. 85.) Appellant ... complains of the giving if instruction number six, contending ... that the instruction makes a distinction where the law makes ... none. The instruction in substance states that it is not ... unlawful for one to own, possess and keep ... ...