State v. Nix, 251 OrApp 449 (2012)

Holding:   Each individual animal was a “victim,” which prohibited the merger of twenty (20) separate violations of animal neglect statutes, even though they all arose out of the same span of time.

1)   Courts construe meaning of statute “by examining its text in context along with relevant legislative history and, if necessary, other aids to construction.” citing State v. Gaines. at p. 453.

2)   Courts are obligated to construe the statute correctly, and, therefore, are not confined to the meanings proffered by the parties. at p. 453.

3)   Where a criminal statute does not expressly identify who is the victim if the statute is violated, courts examine “the statute to identify the gravamen of the crime” to determine the class of persons the legislature intended to protect. at p. 454.

4)   Where a definitional statute expressly designate the statutes to which it applies, that definition is inapplicable to statutes not listed. at p. 456.

5)   In this case, both the staff measure summary and testimony of non-legislative drafters support tentative conclusions drawn after a text and context analysis. at p. 461-62.

Filed under: uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!