People v. Johnson

HART, J.

The defendant was informed against in the superior court of Humboldt County by the district attorney of said county for the crime of maintaining a common nuisance, as said crime is defined by section 21 of the so-called “Wright Act” (Stats. 1921, p. 79), the purpose of which is to enforce the provisions of the eighteenth amendment to

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the constitution of the United States. As is commonly known, the legislature of 1921, by and through the act just named, adopted all the provisions of an act of Congress, known as the “Volstead Act” (Ann. Fed. Stats. 1919, Supp., 212, 41 Stat. 305), the design of which was and is the enforcement, within the limits of the federal jurisdiction, of the said amendment to the federal constitution.

The defendant was, upon being tried for the offense so charged, convicted. He made a motion for a new trial, and the same was denied. He prosecutes this appeal from the judgment of conviction and the order denying him a new trial.

So much of section 21 of the act or acts mentioned as affects the present consideration reads as follows: “Any room, house, building, boat, vehicle, structure, or place, where intoxicating liquor is manufactured, sold, kept or bartered, in violation of this title, and all intoxicating liquor and property kept and used in maintaining the same, is hereby declared to be a common nuisance, and any person who maintains such a common nuisance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $1000.00, or be imprisoned for not more than one year, or both. ’ ’

The information charges that the defendant, “on or about the 15th day of January, 1923, at and in the county of Humboldt, State of California, did then and there willfully and unlawfully maintain a common nuisance in and on the premises known as 507 Second street, in the city of Eureka,” said county and state, etc.

The defendant, in support of these appeals, presents a variety of assignments of alleged error, but, as we have concluded that the judgment and order must be reversed because of errors in admitting certain evidence, it will not be necessary to consider the other alleged errors, except that involved in the claim that the information does not state a public offense, or fails properly to state the offense sought to be charged, as to which, in view of a possible retrial of the case, it should be said that the charge as laid is substantially in the language of the statute, which itself fully and clearly describes the offense, and that it is, therefore, in all respects sufficient to inform and to have informed the accused of the specific crime with which he was charged so as to enable him