DISORDERLY HOUSE. A house the in mates of which behave so badly as to become a nuisance to the neighborhood. State v. Grosofski, 89 Minn. 343, 94 N. W. 1077 ; Haw kins v. Lutton, 95 Wis. 493, 70 N. W. 483, 60 Am. St. Rep. 131. It has a wide meaning, and includes bawdy houses, common gaming houses, and places of a like character ; 1 Bish. Cr. L. g 1106 ; U. S. v. Gray, 2 Cra. C. C. 675, Fed. Cas. No. 15,251; Corn. v. Cobb, 120 Mass. 356. Any place of public re sort in which illegal practices are carried on, involving moral turpitude or not ; State v. Martin, 77 N. J. L. 652, 73 Atl 548, 24 L. R. A. (N. S.) 507, 134 Am. St. Rep. 814, 18 Ann. Cas. 986, where a person making usuri ous loans was convicted of keeping a disor derly house. In order to constitute it such it is not necessary that there be acts violative of the peace of the neighborhood, or boister ous disturbance and open acts of lewdness; Beard v. State, 71 Md. 275, n Atl. 1044, 4 L. R. A. 675, 17 Am. St. Rep. 536 ; but a
single act of lewdness of a man and woman in a house, does not constitute the offence of keeping a house of prostitution ; People v. Gastro, 75 Mich. 127, 42 N. W. 937. And receiving unmarried people who present themselves as husband and wife at a hotel is not sufficient to convict the proprietor of keeping a disorderly house without proof of scienter; People v. Drum, 127 App. Div. 241, 110 N. Y. Supp. 1096.
The keeper of such house may be indicted for keeping a public nuisance; Hardr. 344; People v. Clark, 1 Wheel. Cr. Cas. (N. Y.) 290; Corn. v. Stewart, 1 S. & R. (Pa.) 342 ; Bacon, Abr. Nuisances, A; 4 Sharsw. Bla. Com. 167, 168, note ; King v. People, 83 N. Y. 587; Ex parte Birchfield, 52 Ala. 377. The husband must be joined with the wife in an indictment to suppress a disorderly house ; 1 Show. 146.
See Words and Phrases, vol. 3, pp. 2108 2110.