State v. Mitchell

On report upon an agreed statement. The respondent, a lobster fisherman, found a lost lobster trap adrift bearing the name and license number of H. W. Sawyer, its owner. Instead of returning the trap to Mr. Sawyer, who was known to the respondent, and as he first intended, he set and placed it among his own traps attached to a buoy marked with his name and license number. While he was under observation of a warden he raised the trap, and was thereupon charged with violation of the statute, reading in part, as follows:

“No person, except the owner or an officer authorized to enforce the sea and…