State v. Toole
Supreme Court of Connecticut
Indictment for arson. The house set on fire was described in the indictment as “ a certain dwelling-house of one John W. Slater.”
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Indictment for arson. The house set on fire was described in the indictment as “ a certain dwelling-house of one John W. Slater.” On the trial it appeared that the fire was set in the basement of the southerly part of a building which was originally constructed for one dwelling-house, and which was situated on the westerly side of Church street, in the city of New Haven, and that it was forty feet in width, fronting on the street — that no part of the building was burned except the floor of the basement room in which the fire was set — that the land on which the building stood, was owned in…
1Opinion of the CourtStorrs, C. J.
Arson and burglary are offenses against the security of the dwelling-house, and not against such buildings as property. The legal owner of a house, who sets fire to it while it is in the occupation of another person, it has been said, may be therein guilty of the first mentioned crime; while its occupant by a like act would not become so chargeable, because arson is the malicious firing of the habitation of another. From the necessity of the case, therefore, the proper mode of describing the subject of the burning is to call it the house of the person who dwells in it; although proof of…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- People v. Van BlarcumNew York Supreme Court · 1806
3Cited by6 opinions
- Commonwealth v. BrunoSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1934
- People v. RabinMichigan Supreme Court · 1947
- States v. KeenaSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1893
- Hicks v. StateSupreme Court of Florida · 1901
- Young v. CommonwealthCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1907
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