Commonwealth v. Hand
Commonwealth v. Hand
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
A single count indictment charged Edward Hand, and Rose Hand, his wife, with selling liquor without a license; to which the defendants pleaded not guilty. The counsel of the wife requested the trial judge to charge that as the husband was in and about the house at the time the sales were made, the presumption was that the wife acted under compulsion of her husband, and that the burden of proof that she was so acting, was upon the commonwealth, and the fact that she was acting independent of the husband’s will must be established beyond a reasonable doubt, in order to warrant a verdict of guilty. The several points were refused without being read to the jury, and the wife and husband were convicted. The assignments of error raise only the question of the refusal of the court to affirm the defendants’ points. Ordinarily, the question raised by the points would be a very important legal proposition which should be carefully considered by the trial judge, but in the light of the uncontradicted facts in this case, they were immaterial. The agent of a brewing company testified that he had been delivering beer to the establishment conducted by the defendants for about five years, and that eighty-seven dozen bottles of beer was below the average monthly delivery. That Mrs. Hand always ordered the beer, and always paid for it after having it charged to her on the books of the company. No answer that the court could make to the points as submitted would have had any appreciable effect in changing this verdict. It would have been more orderly
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Liquor laws — Selling without license — Husband and wife — Answer to points — Charge. 1. On the trial of an indictment against a husband and wife for selling liquor without a license the trial judge cannot be convicted of reversible error in refusing to submit to the jury the question whether the wife had acted under the compulsion of her husband, where the agent of a brewing company testified, without contradiction, that he had been delivering beer to the establishment conducted by the defendants for about five years, that eighty-seven dozen bottles of beer were below the average monthly delivery, that the wife always ordered the beer, and always paid for it after having it charged to her on the books of the company. 2. While a party is entitled to a clear statement of the law in answer to every point properly drawn that is material and applicable to the case, and warranted by the facts and the evidence, if not fully covered in the general charge, yet, when the facts to which the points relate are free from dispute and the subject-matter of the point is fully and adequately covered in the general charge, the omission to read and answer the points does the defendant no injury.