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Jupiter v. Maryland12/11/1992
At issue here is whether forcibly taking from a licensed seller of alcoholic beverages beer that the seller intended to sell to legally eligible members of the public constitutes robbery where full payment is made.
After a day's duck hunting, and after helping three friends drink two and one-half cases of beer, the Petitioner, John Mitchell Jupiter (Jupiter), went to Captain John's Crab House and Marina and asked to purchase a six-pack of beer. Warren Yates (Yates), the owner of Captain John's, refused to do so. Yates told Jupiter that he was refused service because he was intoxicated. Jupiter then asked if Yates would sell him a single beer, and Yates again refused. Jupiter went to his vehicle parked outside and then reentered Captain John's carrying a shotgun. It was later determined that there was one shell in the chamber. Jupiter placed the shotgun on the counter, pointed it at Yates, and asked, "Are you going to sell it to me now?" Yates said, "Yes, sir," and produced a six-pack of Budweiser from a cooler behind the counter. Jupiter put a twenty dollar
bill on the counter. Yates took the bill and gave Jupiter sixteen dollars change. An employee of Captain John's telephoned the police.
Jupiter drove away but was promptly stopped and arrested by the police for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and because his vehicle met the description the employee had given.
A jury in the Circuit Court for Charles County found Jupiter guilty of robbery with a deadly weapon, robbery, assault, and driving under the influence of alcohol. The court sentenced Jupiter to ten years on the first charge, merged the second and third charges, and imposed a concurrent sixty day sentence on the fourth charge. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed in an unreported opinion. We granted certiorari to determine if the State proved robbery.
In submitting that his conduct was not robbery, Jupiter relies entirely on The Fisherman's Case, decided in sixteenth-century England, and on some widely scattered commentary about that case. The earliest reference to The Fisherman's Case that Jupiter presents is from M. Dalton, The Country Justice 364 (1690). The accused met a fisherman who was going to market with some fish to sell. The fisherman refused to sell fish to the defendant,
"whereupon the other took away some of the Fishermans Fishes against his will, and gave him more Mony for them than they were worth; but the Fisherman was thereby put in fear: Whereupon the other was indicted . . . . But
Judgment was respited, for that the Court doubted whether it were Felony or no."
There has been a longstanding difference of opinion as to the holding in this case.
Blackstone and a few other early English commentators refer to The Fisherman's Case for the proposition that one who forces a sale of goods intended for sale is not guilty of robbery. 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 242 (1769); see Dalton, supra, at 345 (1746). At least one modern commentator has indicated agreement with this reading of the case.
"It is robbery, it may be added, forcibly to extort money under pretense of a sale, even if some unwanted thing is handed over in exchange. For the same reason it is robbery to require one, at gunpoint, to 'sell' a chattel not held for sale even if payment is made at the time. Some early statements went to the extent of holding it robbery where a merchant is compelled by force to sell to one with whom he prefers not to deal, although the property is held for sale and he receives the full price, -- but this seems not to be the law."
R. Perkins & R. Boyce,
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