State v. Tabler

Decision Date06 January 1905
Docket NumberNo. 5,492.,5,492.
Citation72 N.E. 1039,34 Ind.App. 393
PartiesSTATE v. TABLER et al.
CourtIndiana Appellate Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Appeal from Circuit Court, Harrison County; C. W. Cook, Judge.

Harriet Tabler and another were indicted for maintaining a public nuisance. From an order quashing the indictment, the state appeals. Transferred from Supreme Court. Reversed.

C. W. Miller, Atty. Gen., J. H. Luckett, G. W. Self, William Ridley, R. S. Kirkham, W. C. Geake, C. C. Hadley, and L. G. Rothschild, for the State. Stotsenburg & Weathers, C. C. Jordan, and E. H. Breeden, for appellees.

COMSTOCK, C. J.

Appellees were indicted for maintaining a public nuisance. A motion to quash was sustained by the trial court, and from that ruling appellant appeals.

The indictment charges that the appellees, Harriet and James Tabler, on the 1st of August, 1902, at Harrison county and state of Indiana, near unto the dwelling and business houses of divers inhabitants of the town of Corydon, in said county and state, unlawfully made, erected, set up, and arranged, and did cause and procure to be made, erected, arranged, and set up, in a certain room and building in said town of Corydon (describing the room and building), a certain partition, elevator, screens, curtains, revolving waiters, screen sash, blind door, blind window, paraphernalia, and other devices for the purpose of unlawfully selling and bartering and giving away intoxicating liquors in less quantities than five gallons at a time, and for the purpose of conducting unlawfully a saloon in said room and building; that they did unlawfully, at said date, and injuriously, maintain and permit, and from thenceforth up to and including the time of the making of this presentment do maintain, permit, and operate, in said room and building in said town, the said partition, elevator, screens, etc., for the purpose of unlawfully and illegally selling, bartering, and giving away intoxicating liquors in less quantities than five gallons, and for the purpose of unlawfully conducting a saloon; that, by reason of said partition, elevator, screens, etc., intoxicating liquors, in less quantities than five gallons at a time, are sold, bartered, and given away in said room and building, and have been so sold, bartered, and given away since the 1st of August, 1902, including Sundays and legal holidays, up to and including the time of the making of this presentment; said sales were made with the knowledge and consent of said defendants; that they have absolute control over said room in which said devices before described are located, and in which said illegal business was conducted; that said sale of intoxicating liquors can be made with impunity, and said saloon business can be conducted without fear on the part of the defendants of the consequences of selling intoxicating liquors without license, for the reason that said partition, elevators, etc., so screen and hide the seller of intoxicating liquors from the view of the public that it is impossible to ascertain who is the seller; that no person has a state license to sell intoxicating liquors in said room and building; that, by reason of said partition, elevator, screens, etc., by means of which illegal sales of liquors have been made by and with the consent of the defendants, and by reason of the existence of said illegal saloon maintained by and with the consent of the defendants, and each of them, “men are made drunken, and are seen in and about said building and on the public streets of said Corydon.” Men congregated in crowds in and in front of said room and building before described, blocking the sidewalk, using profane, obscene, and indecent language, all to the damage, inconvenience, annoyance, and injury of divers inhabitants situated and dwelling in said town of Corydon, and near unto said room and building above described. It is further alleged that the people of the town of Corydon are of a high grade of morality, and that, until the acts complained of, there was no place in said town where intoxicating liquors could be purchased for a beverage; that, by reason of the absence of saloons, Corydon was a more desirable place for business and residence purposes, and that, by reason of the acts complained of, the town is less desirable either for business or residence purposes; and that said illegal saloon...

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