Coffee v. State

133 S.E.2d 590, 219 Ga. 328, 1963 Ga. LEXIS 451
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 5, 1963
Docket22114
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 133 S.E.2d 590 (Coffee v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coffee v. State, 133 S.E.2d 590, 219 Ga. 328, 1963 Ga. LEXIS 451 (Ga. 1963).

Opinions

Almand, Justice.

A. T. Coffee was indicted by the Sumter County grand jury for the offense of failing to pay for agricultural products in that he, being engaged on his own account and for others in the business of buying livestock and products sold by planters and commissioned merchants, did buy from Sumter Livestock Association, Inc. on cash sale 199 hogs for a specified price, said sale being a cash sale and the said Coffee did make away with and dispose of said hogs before having paid therefor. All the acts were charged as having been done in Sumter County. General and special demurrers to the indictment were overruled. Waiving a jury trial the defendant was tried before the judge who after hearing the evidence found him guilty and sentenced him to a term of not more or less than two years, subject to his serving his sentence on probation upon compliance with specified terms. Coffee’s motion for a new trial on the general grounds having been overruled, he brings the case here for review, assigning error on the rulings on his demurrers.to the indictment and denying him a new trial.

[330]*330This court has sole jurisdiction to review this case because the statute under which the indictment is framed is challenged by the demurrers as being violative of specified provisions of the State Constitution.

It is first contended that the indictment charges an offense under the Act of 1941 (Ga. L. 1941, p. 337) which in substance provided: “Any person engaged, either on his own account or for others, in the business of buying . . . cattle, hogs . . . sold by planters and commission merchants on cash sale, who shall buy such articles on sale from a planter or commission merchant for cash, and shall fail or refuse to pay for, and shall make way with or dispose of the same before he shall have paid therefor shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than one year, nor more than five years.” But this Act was repealed by the Act of 1959 (Ga. L. 1959, p. 143; Code Ann. § 5-9914) which in substance provides: “Any person, either on his own account or for others, who shall buy . . . cattle, hogs . . . or other products or chattels ... or shall make wray with or dispose of the same before he shall have paid therefor unless credit shall be expressly extended therefor, shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than one year nor more than five years.”

The defendant under the indictment is charged with buying the hogs at cash sale and making away with and disposing of said hogs before having paid therefor. This court in Plapinger v. State, 217 Ga. 11 (120 SE2d 609), held that the Act of 1959 creates in the alternative two offenses, the first where the purchaser fails or refuses to pay for products sold, and the second where the purchaser makes away with or disposes of the products before they have been paid for unless credit has been expressly .extended for the products. It was there held that a conviction under the second portion of the Act of 1959 — making away with or disposing of products before paying for them — did not violate the constitutional provision (Code Ann. § 2-121) prohibiting imprisonment for debt. It was pointed out in the opinion that the defendant in that case was not charged with a failure to pay for the products but with making awray with or disposing of the products before paying for them. It was there said (p. 13): [331]*331“Our concern is with the act prohibited' by the second portion of the statute, the offense for which the defendants were indicted — making way with or disposing of the products before paying for them.”

The request to overrule Plapinger v. State, 217 Ga. 11, is denied.

We are of the opinion that the indictment charges an offense under the Act of 1959.

The demurrers challenge the constitutionality of the Act of 1959 (Ga. L. 1959, p. 143) in that the Act violates:

(a) Art. I, Sec. I, Par. II of the State Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-102) which provides: “Protection to person and property is the paramount duty of government, and shall be impartial and complete” in that “said Act arbitrarily classifies and unjustly discriminates against those classes of citizens who, as agents for others and so represent themselves to be, purchase property and make away with or dispose of the same, for the benefit of their principals, in good faith believing that the property has been paid for by the principal, or that credit has been extended to such principal; that said Act thus by its terms arbitrarily condemns as felons this class of citizens who are without fault and have no intention to harm or defraud the sellers of such property or anyone else; that the classification of citizens as felons who in good faith dispose of property purchased is arbitrary, unjust, and discriminatory, and is not impartial protection to the person.”

(b) Art. I, Sec. I, Par. Ill of the State Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-103) which provides: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law,” in that “said Act condemns as a felon an agent who purchases property for his principal and disposes of the same believing that the principal has paid therefor; that said Act makes criminal a disposition of the property purchased unless credit has been expressly extended therefor, irrespective of the knowledge of whether the property has been paid for or whether credit has been extended; that said Act deprives a defendant of his liberty without liability, without fault, and without knowledge.”

(c) Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XXI of the State Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-121) which provides: “There shall be no imprisonment [332]*332for debt” in that “said Act provides for imprisonment for the bare disposition of property by an agent who acts in good faith believing that the property purchased and disposed of by him as agent has either been paid for by his principal or his principal has been extended credit; that the disposition of a particular kind of property, to wit, that not paid for, is an act declared to be criminal; that the debt for the purchase price is an essential element of the offense; that the bare failure to pay, accompanied by a disposition of the property, whether in good faith, accidental, intentional or beyond the control of the defendant constitutes imprisonment for debt.”

We are of the opinion that the statute is not subject to any of these objections. See: Plapinger v. State, 217 Ga. 11, supra; Eubanks v. State, 217 Ga. 588 (124 SE2d 269) ; Lamar v. Prosser, 121 Ga. 153 (4) (48 SE 977); Meyers v. Whittle, 171 Ga. 509 (156 SE 120); Collins v. State, 206 Ga. 95 (55 SE2d 599); Hollis v. State, 152 Ga. 182 (1) (108 SE 783).

By special demurrer it was asserted that the indictment fails to allege a specific intent on the part of the defendant to defraud or that the defendant knew at the time of the purchase and the disposition of the hogs that they had not been paid for or that credit had not been extended.

It may be noted that the Act of 1959 does not provide that the acts prohibited should be done knowingly or with intent to defraud. No attack is made upon the statute because it does not so provide. The indictment is in the terms of the statute. We are here dealing with the sufficiency of the indictment.

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Coffee v. State
133 S.E.2d 590 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
133 S.E.2d 590, 219 Ga. 328, 1963 Ga. LEXIS 451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coffee-v-state-ga-1963.