Burton v. State

107 So. 2d 140, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2313
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedSeptember 24, 1958
DocketNo. 408
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 107 So. 2d 140 (Burton v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burton v. State, 107 So. 2d 140, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2313 (Fla. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

ALLEN, Judge.

The defendant was charged with attempted larceny of title to certain real estate located in Broward County. The information upon which he was tried read as follows, omitting formal parts :

“ * * * that Arthur Burton * * did then and there unlawfully attempt to take from the possession of the true owner, to-wit: Mrs, Franklyn W. De-vore, the title to certain real property, to-wit: Lots Nos. 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20, or either of them, in Block 8 ' of PINE BEACH ON THE DIXIE, by color or aid of fraudulent or false token or writing, to-wit: a quitclaim deed from one purported Winford Vaughn, the said property,-and each lot thereof being of the value of more than [141]*141One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) good and lawful money of the United States of America.”

The defendant moved to quash the information upon the ground, among others, that the information failed to allege a crime. The motion was denied, and the defendant pled not guilty. Trial was had before the court without a jury, and defendant was adjudged guilty.

Defendant attacks the involved information upon the basis that it attempts to charge larceny of real property and that there is no such crime under Florida statutes. On the other hand, State contends that the information is good under Section 811.01, Fla.Stat. 1955, F.S.A.

State, in its brief, quoted a portion of Section 811.01 and emphasized the phrase which, it argued, supports the information, as follows:

“ ‘Whoever commits larceny by stealing the property of another, any money, goods or chattels, or any bank notes, bonds, promissory notes, bill of exchange or other bill, order or certificate, or any book of account for or concerning money or goods due or to become due, or to be delivered, or any deed or writing containing a conveyance of land, * * * if the property stolen is of the value fifty dollars or more, shall be deemed guilty of grand larceny, * * ” (Emphasis added.)

In his reply brief, defendant candidly pointed out that he had assumed the information was drawn under another section of the statute, since the County Solicitor had so stated at the hearing before the trial court on the motion to quash. That section is Section 811.021(1) (a), Fla.Stat.1955, F.S.A., which reads as follows:

“(1) A person who, with intent to deprive or defraud the true owner of his property or of the use and benefit thereof, or to appropriate the same to the use of the taker, or of any other person:
“(a) Takes from the possession of the true owner, or of any other person; or obtains from such person possession by color or aid of fraudulent or false representations or pretense, or of any false token or writing; . or obtains the signature of any person to a written instrument, the false making whereof would be punishable as forgery; or secretes, withholds, or appropriates to his own use, or that of any person other than the true owner, any money, personal property, goods and chattels, thing in action, evidence of debt, contract, or property, or article of value of any kind.”

This brings us to the consideration of a recent Florida case which discussed the effect of Section 811.021, supra, upon various statutes dealing with larceny and related crimes. In Anglin v. Mayo, Fla.1956, 88 So.2d 918, 921, the Supreme Court dealt with an appeal from a conviction of obtaining money under false pretenses. The central question was whether defendant should have been sentenced under Section 817.01, Fla.Stat. 1955, F.S.A., which deals with the mentioned crime, or under Section 811.021, supra. The involved portion of Section 817.01 read as follows:

.“Obtaining property, etc., by false pretenses. — Whoever designedly by a false pretense, or by a privy or false token, and with intent to defraud, obtains from another person any property, or obtains with such intent the signature of any person to a written instrument, the false making whereof would be punishable as forgery, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding ten years, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.”

In determining that Section 817.01 was repealed by Section 811.021, the Court said:

“We are of the view that the offense condemned by Section 817.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., is clearly comprehended by the offense condemned by Section 811.021, Florida Statutes, [142]*142F.S.A., and that Section 811.021, supra, being a later enactment as well as a revision of the laws theretofore applicable to various offenses supersedes Section 817.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., and insofar as. the appellant is concerned had the effect of providing a maximum penalty of six months in the county jail rather than five years in the State Prison.
* * * * * *
“We have also consistently followed the well settled rule of statutory construction to the effect that where a Statute covers the whole subject matter of an earlier Act and it is evident that it was intended to be a revision of or a substitute for the earlier Act, then the later Statute operates as a repeal of the earlier Statute to the extent that its provisions are revised and supplied. This is so even though the later Statute contains no express words of repeal and despite the rule that implied repeals of Acts of the Legislature are to be invoked only under the most circumspect consideration and when no other conclusion can be reached. Sparkman v. State, 71 Fla. 210, 71 So. 34; State ex rel. [Bradford] v. Stoutamire, 98 Fla. 486, 123 So. 834. See also, People v. Borgeson, 335 Ill. 136, 166 N.E. 451; Sutherland Statutory Construction, 3rd ed., Sections 2011 through 2014; and Statutory Construction by Crawford, Section 326.
“It is here pertinent to note that Section 6 of Chapter 26912, supra, specifically saves from repeal certain sections of the pre-existing Statutes and Section 7 of the same Act provides:
“ ‘All other laws except as specifically enumerated in the preceding section, inconsistent or in conflict herewith, be and the same are, hereby repealed.’ (Emphasis ours.)
“Section 817.01, supra, was not one of the Acts specifically saved from repeal. Customarily, the general repealing clauses repeal prior Statutes ‘in conflict’ with the subsequent Act. We deem it to be of some consequence that the repealing clause in Chapter 26912, supra, repealed not only prior Acts which were ‘in conflict’ therewith but also prior Acts ‘inconsistent’ therewith. Certainly Section 817.01, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., providing a penalty up to ten years in the State Prison was inconsistent with the later Act which-prescribed a maximum jail sentence of six months in the county jail for the same offense.”

It seems apparent that the last quoted remarks apply with equal force to the effect of Section 811.021 upon Section 811.01, that is, that Section 811.01 was likewise repealed by Section 811.021. We might mention that in 1957, both Section 817.01 and Section 811.01 were repealed by the legislature without any significant change in Section 811.021.

The remaining question for our determination is whether the words, “the title to certain real property,” used in the above quoted information, may be said to describe any of the property described in Section 811.021(1) (a), supra, which is subject to larceny.

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Related

State v. Burton
111 So. 2d 34 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
107 So. 2d 140, 1958 Fla. App. LEXIS 2313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burton-v-state-fladistctapp-1958.