Forgy v. Commonwealth
Forgy v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court by
Affirming.
Appellant was charged in a warrant with the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor by knowingly selling Jamaica ginger containing more than one-half of one per cent of alcohol, and under such circumstances as that he might reasonably deduce that the purchaser expected to use the same for beverage purposes.
On his trial in the quarterly court he was convicted, and again upon his trial on appeal to the circuit court, and being dissatisfied prosecutes this appeal.
The evidence discloses that he sold at one time two bottles of Jamaica ginger to an unmarried man who was not a housekeeper, and that the ginger so sold was 93 per cent alcohol, and that defendant’s reputation for the unlawful sale of such extracts was bad.
His first contention is that under the provisions of the enforcement act the evidence as to his character for the unlawful sale was incompetent because the act does not apply to such extracts.
The act on this subject provides:
“In any prosecution or proceeding for any violation of this act, the general reputation of the defendant or defendants for moonshining, bootlegging, or being engaged in the illicit manufacture of, or trade in, intoxicating liquors, shall be admissible in evidence against said defendant or defendants.”
The sale of such extracts when knowingly sold for beverage purposes, or when sold under circumstances
But it is said for appellant that he was entitled to a directed verdict of not guilty, because of the lack of evidence that he had knowingly sold the extract for beverage purposes, or that he had sold same under such circumstances from which he might have deduced the intention of the purchaser to so use them.
We find, however, that not only was the purchaser an unmarried man who did not keep house, and that these facts wrere known to defendant, and that therefore he must have known that the purchaser had no domestic use for the extract, but we find that he at one and the same time sold to such purchaser two bottles of the extract; and even if the purchaser had been a housekeeper the fact that he bought two bottleb at once might reasonably put the seller upon notice, under ordinary circumstances, that it was not intended for domestic purposes alone. Not only so, the evidence shows that the purchaser was a drinking man, and in the habit of getting drunk, and in the small town where the parties lived it is fairly presumable that appellant knew these facts.
Taking the evidence as a whole, the jury was authorized to find from it that the sale was under such circumstances as that reasonably he might have deduced the purpose of the purchaser to use the same for beverage purposes.
But it is said that as the evidence discloses the purchaser did not in fact use the same for beverage purposes, but immediately after its purchase turned it over to another, the case was not made out. The language of the statute, however, makes it an offense to sell to such a person under such circumstances as that he may reason
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.