State v. Schaffer

Citations

• 31 Wash. 305
• 71 P. 1088
• 1903 Wash. LEXIS 626

Syllabus

<p>NUISANCE — MISDEMEANOR—JURISDICTION OE JUSTICE OE EEACE.</p> <p>Under the jurisdiction given justices of the peace to punish misdemeanors, they have power to punish criminally persons guilty of the creation and maintenance of a nuisance, when made a misdemeanor, although justices have no jurisdiction of civil proceedings for the abatement of nuisances, because such action is especially enumerated by the constitution as being within the original jurisdiction of the superior court.</p> <p>SAME-SUEEICIENCT OE COMPLAINT.</p> <p>A complaint charging defendants with the creation and main, tenance of a nuisance does not state facts sufficient to constitute a crime, either when it charges that the offense was committed some indefinite time in the past, without showing the acts as being within the period of limitations, or when it charges, in words of the present tense, without specifying the time as being before the filing of the complaint, that defendants are maintaining a nuisance.</p>