Case ID: ala_35/html/0390-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "R. W. WALKER, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

McDaniel vs. THE STATE.
    [indictment job gaming.]
    1. What constitutes public house, public place, or outhouse where people resort. — A back-house, or privy, “ used by the pupils of the school of a country school house, and attached to the premises,” is not, during the period of vacation, while the main building is not used for the purposes of the school, either a public house, a public place, or an outhouse where people resort, within section 3243 of the Code.
    From the Circuit Court of Bibb.
    Tried before the Hon. Porter King.
    The indictment in this case charged the prisoner and another, in several different counts, with playing “ at a game with cards, or dice, or some device or substitute therefor,” at each one of the places specified in the statute. “It was admitted oil the trial,” as the bill of executions Btates, “that the defendant played a game of cards in said county, within twelve months before the finding of the indictment, in a back-house, commonly called a ‘ necessary,’ or ‘privy,’ which was attached to the premises, and was used by the pupils of the school of a country school-house, or academy; there being vacation in the school at the time of the playing, and the main building being then unused for the purposes of the school. The court charged the jury, that under the evidence, if they believed it, the defendant would be guilty; to which charge the defendant excepted.”
    Ym. R. Smith, for the prisoner.
    M. A. Baldwin, Attorney-General, contra.
    
   R. W. WALKER, J.

The bill of exceptions is somewhat obscure ; but we do not understand from it that the back-house, in which the playing took place, was attached to, or under the same roof with the school-house. The statement that ‘ it was attached to the premises,’ was, as we presume, designed to convey the idea, that it was situated on the same lot, or within the same enclosure, with the school-house. Placing this construction on the bill of exceptions, we do not think that the back-house referred to was, at the time when the playing took place, either a public house, a public place, or an outhouse where people resort. It is obvious that it does not fall within any of the other prohibitions of section 3243 of the Code.

Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.