Biggs v Watt

Biggs v Watt
1934 OK CR 144
38 P.2d 587
56 Okl.Cr. 306
Decided: 12/05/1934
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals

(Syllabus.)

1. Statutes - Penal Statutes not to Be Enlarged by Implication. Penal statutes cannot be enlarged by implication or extended by inference (Okla. Stat. 1931, § 1762).

2. Criminal Law - Criminal Act Required to Be Within Both Letter and Spirit of Penal Statute. Person cannot be convicted of crime unless act is within both letter and spirit of penal statute (Okla. Stat. 1931, § 1762).

Original habeas corpus proceeding by J.L. Biggs against John Watt, Chief of Police of Oklahoma City, and another. Writ awarded, and petitioner discharged.

W.C. Hall and A.L. Jeffrey, for petitioners.

Harlan Deupree, Municipal Counselor, and A.P. Van-Meter, Asst. Municipal Counselor, for respondents.

EDWARDS, P.J. This is an original proceeding in habeas corpus. Petitioner alleges he is unlawfully restrained by John Watt, chief of police of Oklahoma City, and others. That he was charged in the police court with "* * * operating an oil well without a permit, * * *" and that there is no ordinance of said city making the operation of an oil well without a permit an offense.

In the return to the writ the respondents seek to justify the prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment of petitioner under the terms of Ordinance No. 3944 of said city. Said ordinance, in section 2, defines an offense: "To drill or put down any petroleum or gas well" unless a permit therefor shall have been first obtained. It nowhere provides for a permit to operate an oil well nor defines an offense for the operation of an oil well without a permit. Under the settled rule that penal statutes cannot be enlarged by implication or extended by inference,

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