Commonwealth v. McKinney
Commonwealth v. McKinney
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
Certifying the Law.
Section 1306 of the Kentucky Statutes is as follows:
“Any person who shall sell, lend or give, procure for, or furnish vinous, spirituous or malt liquor, or any mixture of either, to a person under twenty-one years of age, other than his own children, without the special written direction so to do, specifying the person by name and the quantity, from the father, mother or guardian of such infant, shail be fined fifty dollars.”
• Appellee, Carlus McKinney, was indicted by the grand jury of Butler county for a violation of the foregoing statute. The law and facts were submitted to the court, and the indictment dismissed and appellee discharged. The Commonwealth appeals for the purpose of having the law certified.
The agreed facts show that the prosecuting witness, Kile Punch, is under the age of twenty-one years, and his father is alive. About one month before the indictment was found the witness went to the place of business of appellee McKinney, and the latter delivered to him one gallon of whisky. The delivery took place in Butler county. The whisky had been ordered by the prosecuting witness from Theodore Sowders, by letter sent by mail, addressed to Sowders at Evansville, Indiana. A check to pay for the whisky was enclosed. Sowders shipped the whisky from the port of Evansville to the witness at Mining City, Kentucky. The whisky was transported by the steamer Evansville, a common carrier between Evansville, Indiana, and Bowling Green, Kentucky, and way points. It was delivered to appellee McKinney at Mining City. Appellee was the duly authorized and acting agent of the boat at that place, and it was his duty to receive and deliver goods for the boat and collect the freight thereon. Appellee received the whisky in question and delivered the same to the prosecuting witness in due course of business.
The foregoing case cannot be distinguished from the case at bar. Here the whisky was shipped from the State of Indiana to the State of Kentucky. The transaction was clearly one of interstate commerce. If the statute for the punishment of knowingly furnishing intoxicating liquors to an inebriate is, as applied to the transportation of liquors from one State to another, an unconstitutional regulation of interstate commerce, it follows that section 1306 of the Kentucky Statutes, under which appellee was indicted, is likewise unconstitutional in so far as it applies to the transaction in question.
From the foregoing, it follows that the judgment of the trial court was proper, and this opinion is certified as the law of the case.
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