Hipes v. State
Hipes v. State
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the court by
Prosecution against appellant for permitting a minor to play a. game of billiards upon a billiard table of which appellant is alleged to have been the owner and manager.
It is argued by the appellant that the information is insufficient, because it does not aver that the appellant was the owner, or had the care or management of the table upon which the game was played. The allegation upon this point isas follows: “Which said billiard table he, the said Marshall Hipes, then and there being the owner of, and then and there having the care, control and management of.” We think this is sufficient. The allegation is not, as counsel assert, a mere recital; it is a direct charge that the appellant was the owner of the table upon which the minor was allowed to play.
It is also contended by appellant’s counsel that the affidavit upon which the information is based is insufficient because not attested by a seal. The jurat is as follows: “ Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of January, 1880. John S. Hedges.” We think that we are bound to presume that the affidavit was sworn to before the clerk of the Henry Circuit Court. The court ex officio takes notice of its officers and their signatures, and we must presume that the Henry Circuit Court did take notice that John S. Hedges was its clerk and that the signature attesting the affidavit was his. Brooster v. State, 15 Ind, 191; Buell v. State, this term.
The State insists that the instruction given by the court embraces that asked by the appellant, and that there was, therefore, no error in refusing it even if correct and relevant. This position is untenable. The appellant had a right to ask a more specific instruction than the general one given by the court. It was his right to have a specific instruction applying to the facts of the particular case as developed by the evidence.
We are, therefore, required to determine whether the appellant had a right to have the instruction asked by him given to the jury. The instructions asked limits the liability of the appellant to a personal care or charge of the tables, for no other meaning can be justly assigned to the word personal as used in the instruction. The appellant may have been liable, although he had not in person con
Appellant also complains of the refusal to give the first instruction asked by him, but there was no error in this ruling, because the instruction given by the court fully covered that asked by the appellant.
The evidence fairly supports the verdict. It impresses us, as it doubtless did the jury, that the defense was an attempt to evade the law by proving appellant’s wife to be the owner of the table on which the game was played, and by showing that at the time the game was played by the minor the appellant had procured another to give immediate personal supervision and control. It fully and satisfactorily appears that the appellant did have a general control and management of the tables, for it is clear that his wife, the alleged owner, gave them no actual attention whatever, leaving all matters connected with them to the management of the appellant.
Judgment affirmed at costs of appellant.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.