Clackum v. State

189 S.E. 397, 55 Ga. App. 44, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 424
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 20, 1936
Docket25641
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 189 S.E. 397 (Clackum v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clackum v. State, 189 S.E. 397, 55 Ga. App. 44, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 424 (Ga. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinions

Gueeey, J.

The indictment charged “Jesse L. Clackum with the offense of perjury for that said accused, in the County of Fulton and State of Georgia, "on the 22d day of January, 1934 with force and arms, did wilfully and knowingly swear absolutely falsely, in a judicial proceeding in the city court of Atlanta, said proceeding being a suit for damages in said court where Mrs. M. E. Kelley was plaintiff and Southern Grocery Stores Incorporated was defendant, and the case was No. 48273 in said court. The city court of Atlanta had jurisdiction over the person of the defendant and over the [46]*46subject-matter of said suit. A legal oath was administered, to accused to testify ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth/ in said ease, under the supervision and by the direction of Honorable Hugh M. Dorsey, Judge of the city court of Atlanta, who was then and there presiding in the trial of said cause, and who had the legal authority to administer the oath to said witness. After having been sworn as a witness in said cause, and during said trial, accused testified under oath that on December 19th, 1932, at about five or five-thirty o’clock p. m., he went with his son to a Rogers store on Cascade Avenue; that his boy stopped at this Rogers store to get him some groceries; that Mrs. Kelley went into the store ahead of him; that she went to the right aisle, on back down to the right-hand side of the store; that he was standing in the front, and she went down toward the rear of the store; that he heard a blundering back there, and that he, accused, went back down there and she (meaning Mrs. M. E. Kelley) was lying in the floor, or either on a box or something, sitting down; she was down there in the floor; I just went back there when she fell, and she was down on the floor. He further testified as follows.: ‘We were just passing by there, and we just stopped in there at Rogers store to get some fruits and stuff. . . Me and- my son stopped to buy vegetables or fruits, or whatever it was.’ Accused testified on said trial, ‘Yes, this morning is the first time since December 19th, 1932, that I ever talked to anybody about this case. . . I just saw that, and went on out and went home. . . I have never mentioned this case to Mr. Williford. I did not even know he was in the case. . . Mr. Williford hasn’t mentioned to me about this lawsuit, and nobody else has mentioned about it to me, and I haven’t mentioned it to a soul. I didn’t know anything about it.’ The testimony above quoted liter alky, and that quoted in substance was absolutely false, and was known to be false -by the accused when he so testified. Accused did not go to the store of Southern Grocery Stores Incorporated, generally called Rogers Stores, and so referred to by accused in his testimony, where Mrs. M. E. Kelley claimed in the above designated suit that she was injured. He did not see Mrs. Kelley in said store on the occasion referred to. Accused was employed by the Georgia Power Company in rebuilding power and light wires and cables which had been broken down by said sleet and ice, at the time of the alleged accident and injury to the said [47]*47Mrs. M. E. Kelley, ancl was in a section of the city remote from the store in which Mrs. M. 'E. Kelley was alleged to have been injured. Accused did not see Mrs. M. E. Kelley in the store where she claimed to have been hurt. Accused was in the office of Ben Williford, attorney .for Mrs. M. E. Kelley in the suit herein referred to, and discussed the alleged accident — which was the basis of the suit — with said attorney and his client before the trial of the suit. Said false testimony was material to the issue involved in said suit, namely, whether the plaintiff, Mrs.. M. E. Kelley, fell and was injured in a store of the Southern Grocery Stores Incorporated, on December 19th, 1932, and whether or not the negligence of said named corporation was responsible for said alleged accident, and whether or not said corporation was liable in damages therefor. All the acts of accused herein complained of constitute the offense of perjury and were and are contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace, and dignity thereof.” The jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty. His motion for new trial was overruled.

“While disqualification of a grand juror propter defectum may be good ground for quashing a criminal accusation preferred by the grand jury of which he was a member, mere disqualification of a grand juror propter affectum is not a good ground for a plea in abatement, and will not require the dismissal of the charge.” Bitting v. State, 165 Ga. 55 (2) (139 S. E. 877); Snead v. State, 38 Ga. App. 797 (145 S. E. 919); York v. State, 42 Ga. App. 453 (34), 459 (156 S. E. 733); Thompson v. State, 47 Ga. App. 229 (170 S. E. 328). The defendant filed a motion to quash the indictment and a plea in abatement alleging that two named members of the grand jury that returned the indictment for perjury against him were disqualified for interest, in that they were employees of the Georgia Power Company, which company was a contributor to the Southern Index Bureau, which bureau in turn contributed to a fund for the prosecution of said charge against him. The motion to quash and the plea in abatement contained the further allegation that there was not sufficient evidence presented before the grand jury to justify the return of a true bill. Evidence was heard by the judge, and the motion to quash and the plea in abatement were overruled. The evidence submitted disclosed that there was sufficient evidence before the grand jury to authorize the return [48]*48of a true bill. The ruling in the Bitting case, supra, makes it unnecessary to go into the evidence produced on the disqualification of the grand jurors.

“Perjury shall consist in wilfully, knowingly, absolutely, and falsely swearing, either with or without laying the hand on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, or affirming, in a matter material to the issue or point in question, in some judicial proceeding, by a person to whom a lawful oath or affirmation has been administered.” Code § 26-4001. “In a broad sense, an indictment in which the essential elements of the crime charged are set out with such particularity as will fully apprise the accused of the exact nature of the offense and the manner in which it was committed is sufficient to withstand a general demurrer. The adoption of any rule more narrow would be mere legal trifling, and would preserve no substantial rights to which any man accused of crime is entitled under the law.” Ruff v. State, 17 Ga. App. 337 (86 S. E. 784). The indictment in the present case, heretofore quoted in full, set forth explicitly every fact and circumstance constituting the crime of perjury as defined by our Code, and was not subject to general demurrer.

“In a prosecution for perjury it is permissible to join in a single count of the indictment a number of separate and distinct material statements alleged to have been falsely sworn to by the defendant in the same legal investigation.” McLaren v. State, 4 Ga. App. 643 (62 S. E. 138). The gist of the offense of perjury is the disregard and corrupt violation of an oath, and separate false statements made by a witness in the same legal proceeding can not be charged as separate and distinct offenses of perjury. Blade v. State, 13 Ga. App. 541 (79 S. E. 173). The indictment was not subject to the demurrer that it attempted to set out several charges of perjury in one count in one indictment, contrary to law.

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Bluebook (online)
189 S.E. 397, 55 Ga. App. 44, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clackum-v-state-gactapp-1936.