State v. Walters
| Decision Date | 06 February 1897 |
| Parties | STATE v. WALTERS. |
| Court | Kansas Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
In an indictment, under the prohibitory liquor law, for maintaining a nuisance, the location of the nuisance was described as follows: "Said place being kept and maintained on lots 10 and 12, block 63, city of Fort Scott, Kansas, and said place being a common nuisance." Held, upon a motion to quash, that the indictment is not fatally defective because of indefiniteness in describing the place.
Appeal from district court, Bourbon county; Walter L. Simons, Judge.
Edna Walters was indicated for selling liquor. From an order quashing the indictment, the state appeals. Reversed.
F. B Dawes, Atty. Gen., and C. E. Cory, for the State.
Biddle, Boyle & Sheppard, for appellee.
This is an appeal from a ruling quashing an indictment in which it was alleged that Edna Walters kept and maintained a place where intoxicating liquors were sold, bartered, and given away, and where persons were permitted to resort for the purpose of drinking intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and where such liquors were kept for sale, barter, and delivery in violation of the statutes, "said place being kept and maintained on lots 10 and 12, block 63, city of Fort Scott, Kansas, and said place being a common nuisance." The ground upon which the indictment was quashed was that it did not specifically describe the place where the nuisance existed. In prosecutions under the prohibitory liquor law, it is necessary to describe the place kept and maintained as a common nuisance (Crimes Act, § 399); and the question for decision in the present case is whether the description is sufficient, as against the motion to quash. The description should be sufficiently definite to advise the defendant as to the charge he is called upon to meet, and also to enable the sheriff to identify the place in the event that an abatement of a nuisance is adjudged. Here the premises are described so that no difficulty can be experienced in finding them. Such a description would be sufficient in an instrument conveying or mortgaging the premises, and it would meet the requirements of the law in notices of tax or attachment proceedings. It is true that no building or other structure is mentioned, and it appears, from like cases which have been before the court, that such traffic is usually conducted in buildings, but the court cannot say that there are...
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Chapman v. Boynton
...Kansas City v. Smith, 57 Kan. 434, 435, 46 P. 710; description of liquor nuisance is sufficient if place may be identified, State v. Walters, 57 Kan. 702, 47 P. 839. See, also, State v. Allen, 63 Kan. 598, 66 P. 628; State ex rel. v. Dick & Bros. Brewing Co., 96 Kan. 215, 150 P. Laws 1887, ......
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State v. Rabinowitz
... ... and so that all can know the extent of the place to which the ... injunction ordered applies. However, the statute does not ... provide that the place must be in a building or enclosure nor ... does it fix any limit on the dimensions of such a place. It ... was held in The State v. Walters , 57 Kan. 702, 47 P ... 839, that such a nuisance might be maintained on open ground ... and that two lots of a certain block in a city was a good ... description. In The State v. Dykes , 83 Kan. 250, 111 ... P. 179, a nuisance proceeding, the defendant was enjoined ... from maintaining a ... ...
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State v. Copelman
... ... which is: ... "To advise the defendant as to the charge he is called ... upon to meet and also to enable the sheriff to identify the ... place in the event that an abatement of the alleged nuisance ... is adjudged." (The State v. Walters, 57 Kan ... 702, 703, 47 P. 839.) ... The ... testimony corresponded with the averments of the information ... and left no doubt about the identity of the place ... No ... error was committed in excluding the stipulation made between ... the county attorney and the owner ... ...
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State v. Baumgardner
... ... (The State ... v. Dykes, 83 Kan. 250, 111 P. 179.) ... In ... another case it was held that a nuisance might be maintained ... in open ground and a description of the place as two lots of ... a certain [112 Kan. 805] block was sufficient. (The ... State v. Walters, 57 Kan. 702, 47 P. 839.) ... In a ... later case it was held that an allegation that the nuisance ... was maintained on the streets and alleys of a city was ... sufficient. It was said that the offender could not escape ... the consequences of his act by taking a push cart loaded ... ...