Case ID: f-cas_7/html/0387-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "THE COURT", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Case No. 3,755.
    DELANY v. WASHINGTON.
    [2 Cranch, C. C. 459.] 
    
    Circuit Court, District of Columbia.
    April Term, 1824.
    Appeal from Justice Decision—Violations of Municipal Ordinances—Sufficiency of Warrant—Unlawful Sale of Liquors.
    1. Upon appeal from the judgment of a justice of the peace, for the penalty of a by-law, the judgment will be reversed with costs, if the warrant does not set forth the offence with sufficient certainty.
    2. A warrant, charging that the defendant ■“did during the last or present month, sell spirituous or other liquor without a license, contrary to the act, or acts of the mayor, &c., on that subject made and provided,” is too vague and uncertain to support a conviction.
    This was an appeal from the judgment of a justice of the peace for a penalty of $20. The warrant commanded the constable to take Pat Delany, &c., to answer to the mayor, board of aldermen, and board of common. council, &c., in a plea that he render to the said mayor, &c., the full sum of $20, which to the said mayor, &c., “he owes and unjustly detains, for that he the said De-lany did, during the last or present month, sell spirituous, or other liquor, without a license, contrary to the act or acts of the said mayor, &c., on that subject made and provided.”
    Mr. Jones, for appellant,
    contended that the offence is not set forth with sufficient certainty, and cited the case of Barney v. Washington City [Case No. 1,033], in this court, at July term, 1805.
    See, also, White v. Washington [Case No. 17,-560], at October term, 1822, and Boothe v. Georgetown [Id. 1,651], at the same term.
   THE COURT

(THRUSTON, Circuit Judge, contra)

decided that the warrant was too

uncertain, and reversed the judgment with costs.