Cohen v. State

112 S.E.2d 672, 101 Ga. App. 23, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 775
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJanuary 15, 1960
Docket37972
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 112 S.E.2d 672 (Cohen 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
Cohen v. State, 112 S.E.2d 672, 101 Ga. App. 23, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 775 (Ga. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

Gardner, Presiding Judge.

1. We will first discuss and pass on the ruling of the trial judge on the demurrers and the motion to quash the indictment. This indictment was drawn under Code § 26-7410. Counsel for the defendant contends that the defendant should have been indicted under Code (Ann.) § 97-112 instead of Code § 26-7410. Under Code (Ann.) § 97-113 which is part of Title 97 regarding securities it is not essential that criminal proceedings be instituted, but that section gives the Commissioner the right to issue an order to prohibit salesmen from continuing the sale of questionable securities and also gives the Commissioner the right to apply for an injunction to restrain such acts and further gives the Commission the [26]*26right to turn over any evidence to the solicitor-general who may institute the necessary criminal proceedings. In regard to- Code § 26-7410, counsel for the defendant contends that that Code section has been held to be too indefinite and uncertain to define a criminal offense or to be -the basis of a criminal prosecution. In support of this contention counsel cites Poole v. State, 47 Ga. App. 303 (170 S. E. 309). That case concerns operating a motor vehicle and does not concern cheating and swindling. For that reason that case has absolutely no application to the case at bar. Howard v. State, 151 Ga. 845 (108 S. E. 513) also was a case involving the Motor Vehicle Act and is not applicable to the case at bar. Manley v. State, 166 Ga. 563 (144 S. E. 170) concerns an indictment drawn under the penal statute in regard to state banking practices. That case is not applicable to the case at bar. In Curtis v. State, 99 Ga. App. 732 (109 S. E. 2d 868), the indictment there being drawn under Code (Ann.) § 97-112, Judge Townsend, speaking for the court in discussing Code § 26-7410, differentiated between the last two mentioned Code sections. There it was stated that under Code § 26-7410, it must be shown that the defendant has been defrauded as a result of a scheme and device to defraud. It is clear that the evidence in the instant case shows that the victim Orr was defrauded of the sum of $2,100. Judges Townsend and Carlisle make the following comments on this point: While Curtis v. State, supra, points out that Code (Ann.) § 97-112 makes it a penal offense to do certain acts which would operate as a fraud regardless -of whether a fraud was in fact successfully perpetrated or not, that ease further points out that the section, like Code- § 26-7410, also makes penal -certain acts which did when committed constitute a fraud, and when a completed fraud is alleged it is necessary to show the elements thereof under Code (Ann.) § 97-112, that is, that some person was in fact defrauded. Accordingly, the Curtis case standing alone is not authority for the conclusion -that there exists so- much difference between the two Code sections that a case involving sale of worthless stock would be brought under the cheating and swindling statute rather than the securities fraud statute where the offense was completed. No such distinction exists, the latter statute cover[27]*27ing both classes of cases. That being so, the rulewould ordinarily be as contended by the plaintiff in error that, a statute having been passed dealing specifically with fraudulent sales of stock, and setting out a punishment therefor different from and less than the ordinary misdemeanor punishment, acts constituting a crime under the securities act should be prosecuted under the terms of that act, and not .under the catch-all cheating and swindling statute, Code § 26-7410, which is designed to encompass all other cases not specially provided for by law. This was definitely decided in Sharp v. State, 7 Ga. App. 605 (67 S. E. 699). The distinction is, however, that the securities act was not intended by the legislature to be exclusive, as it would ordinarily be, but only cumulative, as evidenced by the words codified in Code (Ann.) § 97-9901 as follows: “Nothing in this Chapter or Chapter 97-1 shall limit any statutory or common law right of the State to punish any person for any provision of any law.” At the time of the passage of the act the State had a statutory right under Code § 26-7410 to punish for fraudulent misrepresentations of the value of shares of stock as a result of which another is defrauded. Whitaker v. State, 11 Ga. App. 208 (75 S. E. 258). Since that right was not limited by the securities act, the indictment is not demurrable on the ground that the offense is no longer comprehended under this Code section. It is contended that the words of the statute above quoted “statutory or common law right of the State to punish any person for any provision of any law” should be disregarded as meaningless, first, because the State has no common law right to punish, there being no crimes in Georgia except those made so by statute, and second, because the State does not punish for a provision of law, but for a violation of a provision of law. Statutes must be given a reasonable intendment where this is possible, and this sentence, although poorly worded from a technical point of view, clearly intends a reservation to the State of any right to punish for infraction of any statute which the State may have had at the time of the passage of the act.

2. The indictment in this case alleges that “Clarence Orr paid the sum of $2,100” for the worthless stock, “whereby the said [28]*28Clarence Orr was cheated and defrauded out of the sum of $2,100.” This is a sufficient allegation as to the ownership of the money under the authority of Scott v. State, 53 Ga. App. 61, 66 (185 S. E. 131). McElmurray v. State, 76 Ga. App. 604, 607 (47 S. E. 2d 139) was reversed for the reason that the indictment stated only that “H. Ross Rogers did pay him, the defendant therefor (the property in question) the sum of $1,925,” and that “the said H. Ross Rogers had been injured and damaged in the sum of $1,925.” It is pointed out that “the language in the present case is not in the language of the Code, that H. Ross Rogers had been 'cheated and defrauded’ of a stated sum of money, but that he had been injured and damaged in a stated sum of money. Without being cheated and defrauded, Rogers could have been injured and damaged as a result of the payment by him to the accused of the $1,925 of some other person’s money.” Since the language of the Code is used in this case, the indictment is not demurrable on the ground that it does not sufficiently allege the ownership of the money paid for the stock.

On an indictment for cheating and swindling it is not a fatal variance that the loss alleged is for an amount larger than the amount proved, where the larger amount alleged includes the lesser amount proved. Kemp v. State, 61 Ga. App. 337 (7) (6 S. E. 2d 196). The indictment here alleges that the stock purchased by Orr was worthless. The evidence on the trial showed that it had no market value and was therefore worthless, although it did have a certain “book value.” The court charged that the juiy might convict if they found, among other things, that the defendant “represented to Mr.

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

Related

Westmoreland v. State
246 So. 2d 487 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
112 S.E.2d 672, 101 Ga. App. 23, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 775, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cohen-v-state-gactapp-1960.