Scott v. State
Mississippi Supreme Court
Scott v. State, 62 Miss. 781 (Miss. 1885)
Arnold
Scott v. State
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The building as described by the testimony was not a dwelling-house in legal contemplation. To render a building a dwelling-house it must be a habitation for man, and usually occupied by some person lodging in it at-night. A building which is in fact a dwelling-house does not lose its character as such by a mere temporary absence of its inhabitants who have left with intent to return, but it does not become a dwelling-house, though used for taking meals and other purposes, unless the person occupying it or some one of his family or servants usually sleep in it at night. Bish. Stat. Crimes, § 279; Ex parte Vincent, 26 Ala. 145 ; State v. Warren, 33 Maine 30.
Reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- John Scott v. State
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Burgiaby. Whether house or dwelling. Case in judgment. Section 2738, Code 1880. A house which the owner visits once or twice a year, and in which, during his visits, he sleeps and eats for about a week, hut which at all other times is unoccupied by any person, is not a “ dwelling-house,” the “ breaking and entering” of which, when no one is therein, “ with intent to commit a crime” is “burglary ” under $ 2738 of the Code of 1880.