State v. Fontenot

Citations

• 112 La. 628
• 36 So. 630
• 1904 La. LEXIS 448

Syllabus

<p>ABSON — INDICTMENT—STATUTE—CONSTBUCTION.</p> <p>1. The word “goods” corresponds to the words “bona” and “biens.” It is a very comprehensive term — broader even than the expression “movables.”</p> <p>2. Though the words “goods, wares, and merchandise” succeed each other in section 847 of the Revised Statutes, they are separated from each other by a comma. The three words are not to be taken and considered together as a phrase limited in meaning to such articles as are usually kept in stock by merchants and dealers for sale, but each word is, as to its meaning, to be considered separately.</p> <p>3. The felonious and malicious burning of any object which falls legally under the word may be charged as a crime under the statute. The fact that certain articles falling under the term “goods” may be specifically mentioned in the section does not limit its scope to those articles.</p> <p>Provosty, J., dissenting.</p> <p>On Rehearing.</p> <p>4. The word “goods” has a generic meaning, in which it is synonymous with the word “property” ; and it has a specific meaning, as in the phrase “a stock of goods,” where it means articles of trade — goods, wares, and merchandise. It is used in its specific sense in section 847 of the Revised Statutes, providing that “every person who shall wilfully and maliciously set fire to or burn, or attempt to set fire to or burn, any bridge, shed, railroad, plank-road, railroad car, carriage or other vehicle, or r goods, wares, or merchandise, or any stack, bale or heap of hay, fodder, grain, corn or other produce, or any crop,” etc., “* * * shall,” etc.</p> <p>5. An indictment charging the burning of a merry-go-round outfit does not set forth a crime, under the above statute, unless it alleges that the outfit formed part of a stock of goods, or was being held as an article of trade. In the construction of indictments, nothing can be taken by intendment. Every essential ingredient of the crime must be set forth.</p> <p>6. Where specific and gene