State v. Merrill
State v. Merrill
Opinion of the Court
The suit in equity by the prosecuting officer of the county for the condemnation of the Winton Six touring automobile, No. 30042, resulted in a decree for intervener asserting ownership therein.
“That all conveyances and vehicles of transportation of any kind, whether on the waters of the state, under the water, on land or in the air, which have been or are used for the illegal conveying of any prohibited liquors or beverages, into this state, or from one point in the state to another point within the state, including any animals that may be hitched to any vehicle so illegally used, together with all harness and other accessories employed in such illegal transportation, shall be contraband and be forfeited to the state of Alabama, and shall be seized by any sheriff or other arresting offieer or any other person acting under authority of law in the enforcement of the prohibition laws of the state, who becomes cognizant of the facts or who finds liquor in such conveyance or vehicle being illegally transported as aforesaid.” Gen. Laws 1919, pp. 6, 13.
The prohibited liquors and beverages designated in the act are such as are defined by existing laws, and also:
“All liquors, liquids, drinks or beverages, made in imitation of or intended as a substitute for, beer, ale, rum, gin, whisky or for any other alcoholic, spirituous, vinous or malt liquor; and further, -that any liquor, drink or liquid made or used for beverage purposes containiug any alcohol, shall be deemed an alcoholic liquor, within the meaning of the term ‘prohibited liquors and beverages’ as defined in this act in connection with the existing prohibition laws of Alabama.” Section 1.
Respective references are made to the liquids or beverages carried by the occupant or occupants of said car as “whisky,” “moonshine whisky,” or “corn whisky.” Such liquors are within the expression, “prohibited liquors and beverages,” as defined by the general prohibition laws of the state.
On a “seizure of a ‘conveyance or' vehicle of transportation’ while in the act of the ‘illegal conveying of any prohibited liquors or beverages,’ the burden of proof is cast by the statute on the intervening owner or claimant (1) to establish his superior title thereto, and (2) to prove that he had ‘no knowledge or notice’ of the illegal use of the vehicle or could not ‘by reasonable diligence have obtained knowledge or notice thereof’ to prevent that illegal use.”
See further and more recent statement of the rule in State v. Crosswhite, ante, p. 586, 84 South. 813.
An analysis of the testimony of the several witnesses discloses that, of the state’s witnesses, Moon'and McGhee testified positively that defendant, Merrill, had prohibited liquor at the time he alighted from the car, and as he was to be searched by the officers at the time of seizure threw the bottle containing whisky onto the edge of the road, where it was later found by said officers. State witness Moon testified that officer Horton was about 12 feet away when the search was made; that Merrill did not then “throw the bottle,” but did throw it just as witness “started up to search him.” . A witness for defendant or intervener testified he was one of the deputies assisting in making the arrests and seizure; was about 10 feet from defendant while he was being searched and saw the officers “when they searched him”; that was all; that if he throw any bottle away witness did not see him do so.
Defendant’s witness Connell corroborated defendant in the fact that the latter had no whisky on the occasion in question; gave as the reason for such statement that he “spent with him the night before and had some whisky and we were very dry the next morning, and he didn’t offer me (witness), anything to drink”; that witness also had whisky that night' and did not offer defendant “anything either.” This witness further testified he had whisky when they got to the L. & N. Depot at Columbiana, at the time of the arrests and seizure; that witness did not know Merrill had whisky and the latter did not know witness had whisky; that witness kept it a secret from his companion for thé reason he “didn’t want it drunk up,” and “wasn’t .going to take any chances on” its consumption. We are not impressed with the conclusions of this witness that the defendant, Merrill, had no whisky on the occasion mentioned. So much for the respective tendencies of the evidence.
In the decree it is declared of the tendency of the state’s evidence that the owner of the car, Merrill, “had in his possession pint bottle with cqrn whisky in it, which was thrown by him in some honeysuckle vines near the road and. was afterwards found by the officers who seized the car” ; and of that for the defendant it tended to show “he did not have any whisky in his possession immediately before or at the time of the seizure of the car, and that he had no knowledge that Connell had whisky in his possession.” The decree contains the further statement:
“Conceding that the state’s contention is correct that the defendant, Merrill, had whisky in his possession immediately before or at the time of the seizure of the automobile, I do not think that it should be condemned under the well-established rule for the construction of penal statutes. The burden is upon the state to reasonably satisfy the court, not only that the automobile was used for conveying prohibited liquors or beverages, but that said liquors were being- conveyed by the defendant, Merrill, for another, or that he aided or assisted in such unlawful use, or had knowledge or notice thereof, or could by reasonable diligence have obtained knowledge or notice thereof. * * * It may be conceded * * * that Merrill had knowledge, of the fact that Connell had a quart of whisky' in his possession, yet the state has not made out its case, because it does not show by the evidence that the prohibited liquors or beverages were being conveyed or transported over or along any public street or highway. The evidence shows that the automobile was seized while going along a road in Columbiana.The testimony fails to show that it was a public street or highway. The burden is upon the state to show that the prohibited liquors were being conveyed along a public street or public road.” (Italics supplied.)
The trial court rests the conclusion on Johnson v. State, 105 Ala. 113, 114, 17 South. 99, where the prosecution was for shooting along or across a public road and had resulted in conviction. The conclusion there reached was in consonance with rules of criminal procedure applicable to a conviction for the statutory offense there in question. The statutes under which the instant condemnation is sought are not subject to the burden of proof that the act of transportation must have been on or along a designated public place, as was declared to be the law governing in Johnson’s Case. The burden of.proof of intervener after seizure is that recently announced in State v. One Lexington Automobile, supra, and in State v. Crosswhite, supra.
Under such recent amendment of the prohibition laws, declaring forfeiture and providing for condemnation of vehicles, conveyances, animals, and accessories employed in the transportation of prohibited liquors and beverages denied by the statute, it is not such transportation only on, along, or across a public road or highway, by a person for himself or for another, that is denied, but of such unlawful transportation that is conducted “on the waters of the state, under the water, on land or hr the air” (Gen. Acts 1919,' p. 6, § 13); that is to say, while transportation of prohibited liquors and beverages is denied across or along a public street or highway, an unlawful transportation thereof is also prohibited at every other point on, over, or under any portion of the geographic limits of this state. The learned circuit judge was in error in his construction of the prohibition laws as to the places where prohibited transportation of said liquors and beverages was denied, whether transported by the owner or for another.
As to the intervention of intervener, Newell, claiming the one wire automobile wheel and the tire attached thereto, described as a part of the car in question at the time of its seizure, the evidence establishes his ownership and right to the possession thereof.
We are of opinion that the decree of the circuit court, in equity, be and is affirmed in part as to the intervener, Newell, and oh remandment an appropriate order be made for the delivery to him of the wire wheel and tire in question; that said decree be reversed and rendered in part, and a judgment of condemnation is now rendered for condemnation of the Winton Six touring automobile No. 30D42, found in the possession of defendant, Bob Merrill, on said occasion; that the cause be remanded to the trial court, for the execution of the decree of condemnation by a sale of said automobile. The appellee is taxed with the costs.
Affirmed in part, reversed and rendered in part, and remanded.
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