Bink v. State

98 S.W. 249, 50 Tex. Crim. 450, 1906 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 327
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas·Decided November 28, 1906·No. No. 3611.·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

DAVIDSON, Presiding Judge.

The indictment charges appellant with having stolen seven $20 bills, and four $5 bills, all alleged to be current money of the United States of America, from Chapman, in the Indian Territory, which is alleged to be in violation of the law of the Indian Territory then in force, and known as the offense of theft, and which, if committed in this State, would have been theft, and thereafter bringing said property into the County of Lamar and State of Texas.

The evidence shows that appellant and Chapman were on the train near Hugo, I. T., and engaged in conversation. Appellant stated to Chapman that he had quite a disagreeable trip during the ' cold weather; that he had been over to Paris, taken up the body of his grandfather, and was moving it to the old family burying ground, near Sawyer. This part of the conversation passed, and they talked of other things. The east bound train was waiting for the southbound, which was late. The east bound train “pulled down east of the water tank,” waiting the arrival of the south bound. At this juncture there came a man in, shown to be Dampers, who walked up to Bink and said, “Well, everything is loaded on nicely, and we hope you will not have any trouble from here down.” He further said, “You understand the charges are to be paid at this exchange.” Bink said, “Well, I have deposited all the money I had; in fact I thought I was to pay the whole charges at Sawyer.” And further said, “I do not believe I have money enough to pay you. In fact, I know I have not.” “He then asked me (Chapman) if he could borrow a few dollars from me until he reached Sawyer, and I told him I guessed he could. Appellant asked Dampers then what the charges would be. He told him $170, and I asked him how much money he wanted. He said, ‘Give me $160, if you have got it.’ He said he had $10 or $12 in his pocket. Q. Before that, had he or not offered any check to Dampers ? A. Yes, sir, he did that when he told Dampers that he did not have the money. He says, ‘I have not got the money unless you can cash a draft.’ He handed Dampers the draft and he looked at it. He said, ‘It is as good as gold,’ but he says, ‘I could not possibly make the change here.’ He then asked me if he could get a few dollars from me, and I told him yes. He asked Dampers then what the whole charges would be, and he told him $170. I asked him, ‘How much he wanted then?’ and he said, ‘Give me $160, if you have got it.’ He says, ‘I have got $10 or $12 here in my pocket, and he pulled out what money he had, and I counted him out $160. Q. What, if anything, did he say as to when he would pay it back? A. He says, T will hand you the money back when you get to Sawyer.’ And he got up from the seat. He. says, we will step in here *452 and sign up these papers. He says, we will have ten or fifteen minutes before the train leaves. And he stepped off two or three- steps, turned back, handed me the draft, and says, ‘Here, Chapman, you hold the draft until you get down to Sawyer, and I will hand you your money back/ I stood there until they almost reached the front of the car, or had reached it. I saw they were not going in the baggage car or express car, and I thought I would follow them and when I got to the front of the car, Bink and Dampers were out on the ground and going right up by the side of the car, and there was another man coming from the other end of the car, and stopped me. Q., If you didn’t follow them, why didn’t you follow them? What did you do? A. I stopped there a few minutes at the car. Q. Were you detained there a few minutes? A. Yes, sir; I was detained there a few minutes until they had gotten out of sight. I don’t know where they went, and the south bound train pulled in by that time, and I went back through my car, and went into the head end of the south car, came back through looking for these fellows.”

It was shown that this train came south over the Frisco road, to Paris. This witness identified Bink (appellant) as the man who got his money. Bink and Dampers were arrested subsequently in Paris and charged as set out in the indictment.

This is the second appeal. This question was raised before, as to the introduction of extraneous crimes, and error pointed out, which was sustained and the judgment reversed. This case will be found reported in 14 Texas Ct. Rep., 1011.

Several questions are suggested for reversal: only one of which we deem really necessary to be discussed, to wit: the insufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction. We believe that this contention is correct. There is and has been in England and America, and it is true in Texas, a marked distinction between theft and swindling. Article 861, Penal Code, provides, in substance, that if the possession of the property is wrongfully obtained, it is théft if the purpose at the time of obtaining the property was to appropriate it, or it was obtained by false pretenses for the purpose of appropriating it. Article 877 provides that, wherever property is obtained by contract of borrowing or other bailment, and the property is subsequently appropriated, it constitutes theft. But under these statutes and all of the law of theft, the distinction between that crime and swindling is found in this, that in theft, the title to the property is not am issue. In swindling the passing of the title is necessary. The rule may be stated in this way: The true distinction between theft and swindling, where the property is acquired by means of false pretenses, is this: if the owner was induced to part with his property finally by means of the false pretenses, the offense is swindling. But where the possession delivered by the owner was obtained in a manner not sufficient to pass title to the property, the owner only intending -.to: part with the possession and custody and not the title to his prop *453 erty, and the party so acquired possession then and there entertaining the fraudulent intent to appropriate it and did appropriate it, the offense is theft. In this State, this is the distinction made by the statutes in regard to swindling and theft, and has been recognized by all the decisions in an unbroken line, commencing with White v. State, 11 Texas, 769; see also State v. Vickery, 19 Texas, 326; Cline v. State, 43 Texas, 494; Pitts v. State, 5 Texas Crim. App., 122; Hudson v. State, 10 Texas Crim. App., 215; Prank v. State, 30 Texas Crim. App., 381; Curtis v. State, 31 Texas Crim. Rep., 39; Taylor v. State, 32 Texas Crim. Rep., 110. These are perhaps enough authorities to cite in support of this proposition. In some of the cases cited, the proposition has been elaborated, and many authorities cited.

Applying this rule to the facts of the case made by the State, we find that Chapman parted with his property and the title to it, intending to receive pay later on at a different station. In other words, if it had been a legal transaction, it would have been a loan, to be paid back upon reaching a certain point, and therefore was a parting on his part with the title to the money loaned appellant. It was not a transfer simply of the possession of the property to be returned by Bink to him. See authorities above cited. Under our law, this would have been swindling. If Bink brought the money into Texas, after receiving it, then it could not be a violation of our statute for bringing such property here, unless interdicted by the statute.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Bink v. State, 98 S.W. 249, 50 Tex. Crim. 450, 1906 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 327 (Tex. 1906).

98 S.W. 249 (Bink v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Johnson v. State
162 S.W.2d 980 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Baldwin v. State
104 S.W.2d 872 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1937)
Brady and Orgees v. State
2 S.W.2d 251 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1928)
Brady v. State
2 S.W.2d 261 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1928)
Segal v. State
265 S.W. 911 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1924)
Gibson v. State
214 S.W. 341 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1919)
Lewis v. State
171 S.W. 217 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1914)