Case Name: Ike Beck v. State
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1891-10
Citations: 69 Miss. 217
Docket Number: 
Parties: Ike Beck v. State.
Judges: 
Reporter: Mississippi Reports
Volume: 69
Pages: 217–218

Head Matter:
Ike Beck v. State.
1. Misdemeanors. Aiders and abettors principals.
All ivlio aid in the commission of- a misdemeanor are principals.
2. Sale oe Liquors. Aiding in unlawful sale.
One who, by request of the proprietor, procured from an unlicensed barroom, whisky for a customer, and collected the price, aided in the sale, and was properly convicted as a principal in unlawfully selling intoxicating liquors.
From the circuit court of Yazoo county.'
Hon. J. B. Chrisman, Judge.
Appellant, Beck, was the steward of a steam-boat plying the Yazoo river. On the boat was a bar, owned and operated by one Fullwood, at which liquors were sold; but, on the occasion in question, the boat was in Yazoo county, which, under the local option law, had voted against the sale of intoxicating liquors. A man came on the boat to procure a bottle of whisky, and asked the steward, Beck, for it. Not being connected with the bar, he referred the request to Full-wood, who was in another part of the boat. The latter thereupon asked Beck to go with the man to the bar and get the whisky for him, which he did and gave the money collected therefor to Fullwood. Beck was indicted for unlawfully selling intoxicating liquors, and on the trial the court instructed the jury that if the facts were as above stated the defendant was guilty. There was a conviction and a sentence of fine and imprisonment.
Robert Bowman, for appellant.
No man can sell that which he does not own unless he represents the owner. 1 Benj., Sales, 12. The statute is penal, and cannot embrace cases not plainly within its mean ing and letter. Johnson v. State, 63 Miss., 228. Fuliwood made the sale; Beck only delivered the liquor as an accommodation to Fuliwood. Mutual consent is necessary to a sale. 2 Kent, 477. Appellant did not and could not consent to the sale. He was not a party to it, and should not be made the scape-goat. See Monaghan v. State, 66 Miss., 513; 147 Mass., 537; DuBois v. State, 6 So. Rep., 381.
T. M. Miller, attorney-general, for the state.
Appellant differed from an ordinary bar-tender only in that he was not being paid. Since the proprietor of the bar could not justify the sale, the man who made it at his request could not.

Opinion:
Campbell, C. J.,
delivered the opinion of the court.
In Monaghan v. The State, 66 Miss., 513, it appeared that a minor was a go-between of a licensed dealer and an adult, and therefore the dealer was not guilty of selling to the minor. The sale was to the adult. In the ease before us, the appellant was a party to an illegal act — an unlawful sale of liquor. He aided,and abetted Fuliwood, the owner of the liquor, to violate the law, and thereby became guilty. All who aid in the commission of a misdemeanor are principals.
Affirmed.