Case Title: State v. Widdicombe

Citation: 301 P.2d 1116

Docket Number: 

State: montana

Court: Montana Supreme Court

Date: 1956-09-27T00:00:00Z

Document:
301 P.2d 1116 (1956) STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. W. L. WIDDICOMBE, Defendant and Respondent. No. 9686. Supreme Court of Montana. Submitted July 27, 1956. Decided September 27, 1956. Arnold H. Olsen, Atty. Gen., and C.W. Leaphart, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant. O.J. Paulson, County Atty., Big Timber, argued orally for appellant. Claude C. Gray, Big Timber, argued orally for respondent. ADAIR, Chief Justice. By complaint in the justice's court of Sweet Grass County, the defendant W.L. Widdicombe was accused of the crime of illegally possessing furbearing animals, a misdemeanor, the charge being that on or about the 30th day of March, 1955, at the County of Sweet Grass, in the State of Montana, the defendant "did then and there wilfully, wrongfully and unlawfully possess furbearing animals or parts thereof, to-wit: beaver and beaver skins, which then and there had been unlawfully trapped" contrary to the statute in such case made and provided. Upon his plea of not guilty, the defendant was tried and convicted in the justice court, whereupon he appealed to the district court of Sweet Grass County, where, on October 24 and 25, 1955, he was tried before a jury. At the trial in the district court, the state offered in evidence the testimony of two deputy game wardens, namely: John F. Burke, who subscribed and swore to the complaint in the justice's court, and one Warren Patten. With the testimony of these two witnesses the state rested its case, whereupon on motion of defendant's counsel *1117 the district court directed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant. From this order alone the state has appealed under the provisions of subdivision 5 of R.C.M. 1947, section 94-8104. Defendant's motion for an order directing the jury to return a verdict of not guilty was made upon the grounds "that the evidence presented by the state has utterly failed to prove all the essential elements of the crime charged and alleged in the complaint and that said evidence is legally insufficient to sustain the allegations of the complaint and that said evidence on behalf of the state fails to establish in law the commission of the crime alleged." In its order granting the defendant's above motion, the district court, referring to section 36 of the Montana Fish and Game Department's Trapper Map and Regulations for the 1954-55 General Beaver Season, said: At the trial the complainant Burke, as a witness for the state, testified: While the complaint makes no mention whatever of any beaver traps, yet the witness Burke further testified that he seized a sack containing 21 beaver traps, which he found in defendant's truck in the town of Big Timber at which time, according to his testimony, the witness Burke told the defendant that it was unlawful for defendant to have such traps on the Yellowstone. The witness Burke *1118 also testified that after removing the traps from defendant's truck he delivered them to the sheriff at Big Timber. The official highway map of Montana shows that the town of Greycliff, Montana, is ten miles east of Big Timber, Montana, on the Yellowstone River. Of such facts the courts take judicial notice. R.C.M. 1947, sections 93-501-1 and XX-XXXX-XX; 31 C.J.S., Evidence, section 12, note 25, page 518. Thus it appears that defendant had a legal right to have beaver traps on the Yellowstone River, to trap beaver at a point ten miles upstream from Greycliff and after so trapping the animals defendant had a right to retain possession thereof and of their skins and pelts as well as to possess the traps that were found in his truck. On his cross-examination the witness Burke, in part, testified: The witness Warren Patten testified that he lived in Big Timber and was a deputy game warden in 1955; that he issued a beaver trapping permit to one Dick Curtis, as beaver damage was being done on Otter Creek about three miles south of the Curtis Ranch. According to the official map of Montana, Otter Creek is a "drainage upstream" from Greycliff which creek flows into the Yellowstone River about opposite the town of Big Timber. The witness Patten also testified that he knew the defendant and that he saw him on the 7th and 12th of March, 1955, just opposite the Springdale bridge, coming off the Yellowstone River some 16 miles west of Big Timber. It follows that under the license issued to defendant he had a legal right to there trap beaver and to keep both the beaver there caught as well as their skins. There is no evidence showing that defendant did not legally trap the beaver or that he did not rightfully obtain the skins found in his possession under and by virtue of the license so granted to him by the Montana Fish and Game Commission. The state's main and only serious contention is that under the provisions of R.C.M. 1947, section 94-7227, the trial court was not empowered to direct the jury to return a verdict for defendant, and that such court was merely clothed with the authority to advise the jury to acquit the defendant. R.C.M. 1947, section 94-7227, supra, provides: In support of its above contention the state relies upon several Montana cases, including State v. Thierfelder, 114 Mont. 104, 132 Pac. (2d) 1035, but a careful examination of the cases so relied upon shows that there was a substantial conflict in the evidence in such cases and not an utter failure or lack of evidence to establish the state's case. In the case at bar there is no substantial evidence showing defendant had violated the law in the trapping of the beaver, or in his possession of the beaver or the skins or pelts thereof at the time of his arrest by the deputy game warden. The instant case comes within the rule announced in State v. Welch, 22 Mont. 92, 55 Pac. 927, 930, wherein this court said: In State v. Gomez, 58 Mont. 177, 180, 190 Pac. 982, 983, this court said: In State v. Labbitt, 117 Mont. 26, 35, 156 Pac. (2d) 163, 166, this court said: The beaver, the skins, pelts, traps and other property seized, taken and withheld from the defendant W.L. Widdicombe, are ordered to be delivered and returned to said defendant forthwith and the attorney's fees, costs, expenses and outlays approved and awarded by the district court under Chapter 38, Laws of 1949, are ordered to be paid and delivered to defendant's court appointed counsel forthwith. The order of the court directing the jury to return a verdict of "not guilty" is hereby affirmed and it is so ordered. ANGSTMAN, ANDERSON, DAVIS, and BOTTOMLY, JJ., concur.