Court Opinion

ID: 9598697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:10:44.043504+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:47.830316
License: Public Domain

Benton, J.,
dissenting.
This is a case that requires construction of a criminal statute. The statute reads as follows:
If any person break and enter a dwelling house while said dwelling is occupied, either in the day or nighttime, with the intent to commit assault or any other misdemeanor except trespass, he shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony; provided, however, that if such person was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of such entry, he shall be guilty of a *450Class 2 felony.
Code § 18.2-92 (emphasis added).
“[B]ecause the statute in question is penal in nature, it must be strictly construed against the state and limited in application to cases falling clearly within the language of the statute.” Turner v. Commonwealth, 226 Va. 456, 459, 309 S.E.2d 337, 338 (1983). Furthermore, rules of statutory construction also suggest as follows:
Where possible, a statute should be construed with a view toward harmonizing it with other statutes. Because the Code of Virginia is one body of law, other Code sections using the same phraseology may be consulted in determining the meaning of a statute.
Branch v. Commonwealth, 14 Va. App. 836, 839, 419 S.E.2d 422, 425 (1992) (citations omitted). Moreover, the rule is well established that “statutes relating to the same subject should be read and construed together.” Turner, 226 Va. at 461, 309 S.E.2d at 339.
In Rash v. Commonwealth, 9 Va. App. 22, 383 S.E.2d 749 (1989), this Court defined the term “dwelling house” as it is used in the common law and in Code § 18.2-89.3 The Court held “that the term ‘dwelling house’ in Code § 18.2-89 means a place which human beings regularly use for sleeping.” Id. at 26, 383 S.E.2d at 751. Thus, the Court reasoned that a “house remains a dwelling house so long as the occupant intends to return.” Id. Because all dwelling houses must have an “occupant” in order to satisfy the definition of “dwelling house,” all dwelling houses are necessarily “occupied” in the sense that they are regular residences.
Logic and the rules of statutory construction dictate that the term “dwelling house,” as defined for purposes of Code § 18.2-89, has the same meaning when used in Code § 18.2-92, a related *451statutory burglary offense. Code § 18.2-92 prohibits any person from “breaking] and enter[ing] a dwelling house while said dwelling is occupied.” The word “occupied” is a modifier which, in the context of the statute, can only connote either an actual physical presence in the dwelling or regular and usual use of the dwelling by persons as a residence. See Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (1981). If in interpreting the statute, we use the term “dwelling house” in the manner consistent with the holding in Rash (i.e., a residence that regularly and usually has an occupant), the word “occupied” in Code § 18.2-92 must be limited to actual physical presence. To do otherwise is to create a redundancy or to read out of the statute the word “occupied.” When interpreting Code § 18.2-92, we may not do either because we “have a duty to give full force and effect to every word [of the statutes].” Foote v. Commonwealth, 11 Va. App. 61, 65, 396 S.E.2d 851, 854 (1990).
The evidence did not prove that Johnson entered the dwelling house “while said dwelling [was] occupied.” No evidence proved that anyone was present within the dwelling. Indeed, the evidence proved that the three people who were in the apartment locked the door, got into an automobile, and drove away. After they left the apartment, Johnson and his companions entered the apartment. Accordingly, I would hold that the dwelling was not occupied and reverse the conviction.

 Code § 18.2-89 reads as follows:
If any person break and enter the dwelling house of another in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony or any larceny therein, he shall be guilty of burglary, punishable as a Class 3 felony; provided, however, that if such person was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of such entry, he shall be guilty of a Class 2 felony.