Case ID: ala_55/html/0158-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "BRICKELL, C. J. —", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Watson v. The State.
    
      Indictment against Itetailer of Spirituous Liquors.
    
    1. Constitutionality of ad approved March 18th, 1875, “ to render more explicit and to provide for the better enforcement of the provisions of law in reference to the sale or giving away of spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors." — Held, on the authority of Adler’s case, at the present term, that the act approved March 18, 1875, entitled as above, is not violative of the constitutional provision, contained in the second section of the fourth article, which declares that “each law shall contain but one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title.”
    SI. Judicial knowledge of “lager beer.” — The courts will take judicial notice of the fact that “lager been'." commonly used as a beverage throughout the country, is a malt liquor.
    Ebom the Circuit Court of Pike.
    Tried before the Hon. H. D. Clayton.
    The defendant in this case was tried and convicted under an indictment wbicb charged that he “ did sell or give spirituous, vinous, or malt liquor, to one Abe Culver, a, minor, without the requisition of a physician for medicinal purposes.” “On the trial,” as the bill of exceptions states, “it was proved that the defendant, within twelve months before the finding of the indictment, and in said county, sold lager beer to the person named in the indictment, who was under twenty-one years of age, and whose father had authorized the defendant to let him have lager beer whenever he called for it; that this authority had never been revoked, and that the father was not present when the minor purchased and drank said lager beer. This being all the evidence, the court charged the jury, at the request in writing of the solicitor, that they must find the defendant guilty, if they believed the evidence; to which charge the defendant excepted.”
    J. D. GARDNER, for the defendant,
    Jno. W. A. Sanford, Attorney-General, for the State.
   BRICKELL, C. J. —

The appellant was indicted and convicted, under the statute approved March 18, 1875 (Pamph. Acts 1874-5, p. 280), of the offense of selling or giving to a minor spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors. The objection now taken to the constitutionality of this statute, that the subject is not clearly expressed in the title, was considered at the present term, in the case of Adler v. State, and we said: “We do not think the objection to the constitutionality of the act under discussion is well taken. True, the title does not clearly point to all the provisions of the act. The authorities above cited show that this is not necessary. It does, however, ‘ clearly express,’ that the ‘ sale or giving away of spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors,’ is the subject. Every provision of the statute falls within the scope of this general subject.” We are content with this conclusion.

“ It is most unquestionable, that courts will take notice of. what is within the common experience or knowledge of all men.”' — 1 Green! Ev. § 6. It is not, therefore, necessary to prove the meaning of words in the vernacular language, nor the meaning of terms which, from continuous use, have acquired a definite signification, generally, if not universally known. This court has taken judicial notice of the nature of lotteries, and the manner in which they are conducted. Boullemet v. State, 28 Ala. 88. So, also, of the business of an ambrotypist and daguerreotypist, and photograph painter. Barnes v. Ingalls, 39 Ala. 193. So, that the word syndic, in the civil law, very nearly corresponds with that of assignee in the common law. Lager beer is certainly universally known here as a malt liquor; and it would be as vain and useless to offer evidence that such is its character, as that whiskey is a distillation of grain, or wine of fermented juice of the grape, or cider the expressed juice of the apple. The word is now found in the dictionaries commonly used; and from its introduction into this county as a beverage, that it is a malt liquor is known wherever it is drunk, or is an article of commerce. Courts cannot profess ignorance of the meaning of words of popular use, and about the signification of which no intelligent member of the community would hesitate. Evidence that lager beer was a malt liquor, was not necessary to support the indictment.

Let the judgment be affirmed.