State v. Warren
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
On exceptions from Nisi Prius. Indictment for burning a barn, on the 18th March, 1849, within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse. It appeared upon the trial that the house had been occupied for keeping persons infected by the small pox, but that they had all been removed from the house three or four weeks before the barn was burnt; that during that period of three or four weeks the house had not been occupied by any person, as a dwellinghouse.
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On exceptions from Nisi Prius. Indictment for burning a barn, on the 18th March, 1849, within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse. It appeared upon the trial that the house had been occupied for keeping persons infected by the small pox, but that they had all been removed from the house three or four weeks before the barn was burnt; that during that period of three or four weeks the house had not been occupied by any person, as a dwellinghouse. The jury were instructed that, if the house was intended to ' he occupied as a dwellinghouse, and was capable of being so occupied on the 18th March,…
1Opinion of the Court
The inquiry should not have been, what the house was designed for, or was capable of being, but whether it was then a dwellinghouse.
To constitute a building a dwellinghouse, it must be a habitation for man, and usually occupied by some person lodging in it at night, though such occupant may for a time be absent, leaving furniture therein, with a,n intention of returning. 4 Black. Com. 224; 1 Leech, 185; 2 Russell, 914, 922.
Under an intimation from the Court that the instructions were erroneous, and could not be sustained, the Attorney General entered a nol. pros., and the defendant was…
2Cited by6 opinions
- State v. VickersSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1982
- State v. MorrisOregon Supreme Court · 1917
- Simmons v. StateIndiana Supreme Court · 1955
- Desroches v. McCraryMichigan Supreme Court · 1946
- Scott v. StateMississippi Supreme Court · 1885
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