State v. Con O'Keefe
Supreme Court of Vermont
Complaint of town grand juror for violation of the statute against the sale of intoxicating liquors. The case came into the county court on appeal from the proceedings before a justice of the peace. The justice record set forth the complaint as follows : STATE OF VERMONT, ) To Wm.
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Complaint of town grand juror for violation of the statute against the sale of intoxicating liquors. The case came into the county court on appeal from the proceedings before a justice of the peace. The justice record set forth the complaint as follows : STATE OF VERMONT, ) To Wm. E. Hawks, justice of the Bennington county, ss. j peace for county of Bennington, comes Samuel C. Loomis, grand juror of the town of Bennington, in said county, and complains that Con O’Keefe, of Bennington, on or about the 2d day of January, A. D. 1867, at Bennington, did at divers times sell and furnish…
1Opinion of the Court
*694The opinion, of tbe court was delivered by
Steele, J.
It is a fundamental rule of criminal pleading that the material facts must be averred in the complaint or indictment with certainty as to time and place. While, as stated in. State v. Coolc, 38 Vt., 438, this rule does not apply to every merely descriptive averment, when its only office is to so qualify the object acted upon as to make it a proper subject of complaint, it is never to be disregarded in alleging the acts complained of. Certainty in averments of time is of more importance than truth, for the proof is not in ordinary cases…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- State v. CookSupreme Court of Vermont · 1866
3Cited by4 opinions
- State v. HodgsonSupreme Court of Vermont · 1893
- Morgan v. StateSupreme Court of Florida · 1906
- Fish v. ManningDistrict Court, S.D. New York · 1887
- State v. NorthSupreme Court of Vermont · 1916