Norwich bulletin., 1909-04-27
NOT GUILTY.
Druggist LabeIle of Dayville, Who
Was Charged with Violating Sunday
Laws.

William E. Labelle, charged with
keeping his drug store at Dayville
open on Sunday, April II, and expos
ing goods for sale, in violation OF the
Sunday laws of the state, was found
not guilty by Judge Harry L. Back in
the town court Monday morning.
In his finding. Judge Back said;
THE complaint in this case sets out
III two counts that the defendant on
the 18th day Of April, 1903, did expose
certain property, to wit: cigars, for
sale, and did keep open a certain
store, shop and warehouse.
This prosecution is brought under
section 1869 Of the general statutes
which reads as follows:
Every person who shall do any
secular business or labor, except works
Of necessity and mercy, or keep open
any shop, warehouse, or any manufac-
turing and mechanical establishment
between twelve o'clock Saturday night
and twelve o'clock Sunday night, shall
be fined not more than fifty dollars
AT the hearing it was proved that
the defendant on the date mentioned
opened his drug store in which Sun
day papers were kept for sale, from
to 10 o'clock a. m, from y m. to !
.. m. and from 5 p. n. to p. m; that
during those hours the defendant eX-
posed all the goods in said store for
sale with the exception Of spirituous
ard Intoxicating liquors; also that the
defendant had opened in this manner
upon Sundays for seventeen years, eY-
er since he has opened the store.
The store was properly open for
the sale of Sunday papers and for the
compromising Of prescriptions and dis
pensing drugs. For the proprietor to
draw line between what should not
be sold for medicinal purposes would
vfrH -
during such hours for dispensing med
icines and Sunday papers is a public
need and the common law has allowed
acts of necessity upon Sunday, and by
necessity the law does not mean
physical and absolute necessity, but
moral fitness of propriety.
That the proprietor did not open
the store so much for business w.
poses or for profit as for supplying the
needs Of the community is shown by
the restricted hours of opening and the
closing the store the me- g. part Of
the day indicates a spirit OF obedience
to the law and an intent to open only
so far as the needs Of the public re-
quire. The sale Of such goods as are
asked for during the limited time Of
opening not only dispenses with the
necessity OF drawing line between
what can and what cannot legally be
contribute a remuneration to the pro-
prietOr for keeping open for the ac-
comm0dation OF the public. 1t also may
be pointed out that cigars, whether
sold in this store or not could be pur-
chased at any hotel in town at any
time on Sunday. IN these days Of
Increasing travel by steam, by electric
railroads and by automobiles more
transients are coming into villages up
on Sunday and some place where
wants may be supplied more and more
is a necessity. In state VS.. Ryan, so
Conn. at page $50, the supreme court
summarizes a charge to a jury upon a
Sunday violation case substantially as
follows:
"If the jury were satisfied beyond
a reasonable doubt that the acts were
done under such circumstances as ac-
tually to disturb the public peace and
quiet, or to annoy, interrupt or dis
turb any citizen in his proper observ-
ance of the day they must find the
defendant guilty: but thar if they were
not so satisfied they should find him
not guilty
The charge to the jury was given
by judge Case at the October term
G90D Of the superior court in Itch
field county and the supreme court
neither sustained nor overruled it.
In that prosecution, Judge Case
charged the jury as follows:
1t is then for you to say, as a fur
Their and vital fact IN the states case,
whether in doing what he admits to
have done. the accused actually dis
turbed the public peace. or interfered
with its preservation, or interfered
with any persons enjoyment of that
rest and appropriate quiet which the
law assures to all good citizens upon
that day.
I'm the case under consideration
there is no evidence that the accused
in any way disturbed the public
peace. Therefore, inasmuch as the
store unquestionably was legally open
for certain purposes; because of the
difficulty of discriminating between
what may and what may not be sold,
in view of the increasing necessities
of the public upon Sunday, and mas
much as public peace in no way was
disturbed, it follows that the defend
ant. however guilty he may seem of
violating the letter of the law, was
not violating the spirit of it. The court
cites the case of Judge Case above re-
ferred to and the opinion Of Judge
Pearne OF the city court of Middle
town in the case similar in all
respects to the one under
consideration, and of the state
vs. Woodward. Both opinions were
quoted at length by Judge Back. While
Judge Back found a verdict of not
guilty for the defendant, he made 1t