Forney v. State

242 N.W. 441, 123 Neb. 179, 1932 Neb. LEXIS 189
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1932
DocketNo. 28217
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 242 N.W. 441 (Forney v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forney v. State, 242 N.W. 441, 123 Neb. 179, 1932 Neb. LEXIS 189 (Neb. 1932).

Opinion

Paine, J.

This is a writ of error to the district court for Wayne county. The plaintiff in error, Claude Forney, hereafter called the defendant, was convicted of the felonies set out in sections 69-109 and 69-110, Comp. St. 1929, commonly known as selling and removing mortgaged property, which offenses were set out in five counts in the information, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty upon counts 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the district court entered a sentence of two years in the penitentiary upon each of four counts, said sentences to run concurrently.

The information charged that a mortgage was given to Sam Wertheimer and Sol L. Degen, doing business as the firm of Wertheimer & Degen, and the mortgage was given to the partnership. It is charged that the defendant mortgaged 50 head of white face steers, dehorned, of the average weight of 517 pounds, with a U brand on the left hip, to Wertheimer & Degen to secure the payment of $2,921.07. It is charged in count 2 that one white face steer, so branded and weighing 870 pounds, was sold by the defendant without first securing the consent of the mortgagees thereto in writing. The evidence may be set out briefly as follows: Ray Wenzel, who drove a truck, and who stated that he was sometimes known as Art Clymor, and lived at Norfolk, testified for the state that the defendant, Forney, told him to take a steer along with him to Sioux City and sell it, and when he got back defendant told him to keep the money on what defendant was owing him. Wenzel said defendant did not trade the steer to him on the account, and he did not buy the steer from defendant. He delivered the steer to the Walsh Commission Company, and received the money from Walsh, then made the settlement with Forney. It was charged in count 3 that the defendant, without the consent of the mortgagees, sold and transferred one of the above steers, which weighed 1,060 pounds, to Art Clymor,

[181]*181a name under which Ray Wenzel sometimes went; and in count 4 of the information it was charged that the defendant, Forney, removed eight head of white face steers, above described and so branded, out of and away from Wayne county, Nebraska, without first securing the consent of the mortgagees in writing; and in count 5 of the information it was charged that the defendant, without the consent of the mortgagees, did remove three head of said white face steers out of and away from Wayne county, Nebraska.

James Jensen saw the defendant April 1, 1930, in Omaha, and testified to selling 30 head of white face cattle, a part of the 50 head under the mortgage. Sol L. Degen testified that the firm of Wertheimer & Degen carries on business at the Union Stock Yards, South Omaha, having been in business there for 30 years; that he sold Mr. James Jensen 50 head of yearling steers April 8, 1930, and Mr. Jensen bought these cattle for the defendant, Clyde Forney, and they were shipped to' the defendant, who signed the chattel mortgage given on them to the firm, upon April 8, 1930, which mortgage was duly filed in Wayne county, Nebraska, upon April 12, 1930, for the sum of $2,921.07. On March 1, 1931, 30 of the same cattle were shipped back to the Union Stock Yards at South Omaha by the defendant and sold for $1,991.51, leaving a balance due of $1,146.95.

Tom Dunn, a trucker, testified that on November 23, ' 1930, he got four of these white face cattle out of defendant’s feed yard and took them to Sioux City, where he unloaded them in the stock yards; that on February 3, 1931, the defendant met him on the street and told him that he wanted to send three steers down to Sioux City, and to come out in about an hour, which Mr. Dunn did, and they loaded up three steers about 9 o’clock at night and took with them a small calf, all of which were delivered to the stock yards in Sioux City the next morning, and that the defendant rode with them to Sioux City and return on this trip.

[182]*182Ray Wenzel testified that he had lived in Wayne county and was usually known there as Wenzel, but that he was also known as Art Clymor; that he had known the defendant for three or four years, having picked corn for him, and that his wife had also worked for the defendant, and had sold him chickens; that upon January 5, 1931, witness had planned to take some hogs to Sioux City, and the defendant asked him to take a steer along, and that he took his own hogs and the steer of the defendant to Sioux City, shipping them by some trucker from Wake-field, whose name he does not know, but that he drove down in his own car and sold the steer and hogs to the Walsh Commission Company upon January 5. That about February 26, 1931, when he was shipping some of his own hogs to Sioux City by truck, the defendant told him to take down another steer, and he went over and loaded in the first steer that he could get hold of with his hogs, sold it, and got the check in his name and kept it for money that Forney owed him.

M. K. Berman testified that November 23, 1930, he sold eight head of white face cattle for the defendant, and identified a check, dated November 24, 1930, payable to Claude Forney, Wakefield, Nebraska, for $458.41, sold by Rice Bros., live stock commission firm of Sioux City, Iowa. Mr. Berman, salesman for Rice Bros., testified that he sold three head of cattle as salesman for Rice Bros. Live Stock Commission Company, Sioux City, Iowa, and identified a check given in payment thereof to Claude Forney, Wayne, Nebraska, upon February 4, 1931, for $152.77.

Frank Tyler testified that he had lived in Omaha for 30 years, and had been with the firm of Wertheimer & Degen for about 20 years; that upon February 22, 1931, he went to the farm of Claude Forney to check up the cattle on the loan, and when he counted the cattle he found that only 30 of the mortgaged cattle were there, and inquired of defendant what had become of the remainder. The defendant told him that some of them must have got out in the field; that he thought three of them had died, and that perhaps two or three had been stolen. Mr. Tyler was un[183]*183able to obtain any information from defendant as to the' rest of the cattle, and the 30 head remaining were shipped to South Omaha and sold, and credited upon the note and mortgage.

The defendant insists that, when the information contains two counts which charge separate and distinct, felonies, the state should be required to elect, and cites Blair v. State, 72 Neb. 501, which held that the court-might, in the exercise of sound discretion, require the county attorney to elect upon which count he would rely for conviction before the accused would be required to make his defense. To this the state replies that, while the trial judge may require such election, it is not the duty of the court to compel the prosecutor to elect in every case Cohoe v. State, 82 Neb. 744.

A joinder in one indictment, in separate counts, of different felonies, of the same class and subject to the same: punishment, does not, by reason of such joinder alone,, make it the duty of the court, upon motion of the accused,, to compel the prosecutor to elect upon what one of the-charges he will go to trial. Korth v. State, 46 Neb. 631; Bartley v. State, 53 Neb. 310; Sheppard v. State, 104 Neb. 709. This is a matter resting in the sound discretion of the trial court, and the determining question in each case is whether the defendant has been embarrassed or confounded in making his defense. Baker v. State, 109 Neb. 558; Luke v. State, ante, p. 101.

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Bluebook (online)
242 N.W. 441, 123 Neb. 179, 1932 Neb. LEXIS 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forney-v-state-neb-1932.