State v. Bell
Supreme Court of North Carolina
Appeal by defendant from Allen, J., at March Term, 1922, of VaNce. On 20 December, 1921, Mabel K. Bell made an affidavit before a justice of the peace of Nance County that tbe defendant, her divorced husband, had willfully abandoned . and failed and refused to support his four children, of the age of four, six, eight, and eleven years, respectively; and thereupon she obtained a warrant under which the defendant was arrested and afterward bound to the Superior Court.
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Appeal by defendant from Allen, J., at March Term, 1922, of VaNce. On 20 December, 1921, Mabel K. Bell made an affidavit before a justice of the peace of Nance County that tbe defendant, her divorced husband, had willfully abandoned . and failed and refused to support his four children, of the age of four, six, eight, and eleven years, respectively; and thereupon she obtained a warrant under which the defendant was arrested and afterward bound to the Superior Court. At the March Term, 1922, the grand jury returned a true bill containing three counts charging the defendant (1) with the willful…
1DissentStacy, J.
I should be content with the judgment of the majority in this case if I did not feel that the present decision is vio-lative of the rule of strict construction, as it relates to the interpretation of criminal statutes, and further, that .it is in conflict with a number of our previous decisions. The duties of a husband are quite different from those of a father, and it would seem that a penal statute directed against the one ought not to be held to include the other, unless the *715Legislature so declare. A man may be a husband and yet not a father; or, like J. E. C. Bell, he may be a father and…
2Cases cited14 opinions
- State v. May.Supreme Court of North Carolina · 1903
- Cram v. . CramSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1895
- State v. SmithSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1913
- In Re Chisholm's WillSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1918
- Sanders Ex Rel. Pratt v. SandersSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1914
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