Case Name: The People vs. Michael Nolan, Wm. Rogers and Peter Nicaise
Court: Michigan Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1871-01
Citations: 2 Mich. N.P. R. 44
Docket Number: 
Parties: The People vs. Michael Nolan, Wm. Rogers and Peter Nicaise.
Judges: 
Reporter: The Michigan Nisi Prius Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 44–44

Head Matter:
The People vs. Michael Nolan, Wm. Rogers and Peter Nicaise.
Burglary. — Entry through gratiDg over an excavation adjoining a-cellar window;
Error to the Recorder’s Court of Detroit.

Opinion:
Opinion by
Ghristiancy, J-
Defendants were tried in the Re-' corder's Court of Detroit upon an information charging them with bavin" broken and entered the . store, or shop of one Murray, in the umht time with intent, etc. • The evidence tended to prove the larceny in the store, and that the defendant entered in the night time through an area outside of tho cellar which would seem to have been excavated adjoining the cellar window, and which was covered- with an iron grating as is usual in such cases, the defendants' raising the grating for that purpose, then passing . through the window which was not shown to'have been shut at the time, in to the. cellar and thence up a stairway through a trap door, which was shut, into the store. It was Objected in the Court below, and this is the principal objection urged here, that this did not constitute á breaking within the meaning of Sec. 575b, P- L-; but that itho jmly breaking shown was an interior breaking of the trap door, after getting "into the cellar, and that such interior breaking does not come within the provisions of. this section, as it would in the case of a dwelling house at common law.
" Hd l That • the area or excavation in front of the window covered and'protected by the iron grating should properly be considered as part of the cellar, and the grating as part of the window. Therefore the takin" up of the grating constitutes an exterior breaking as clearly as the opening of the window itself, or of an outer door