Hill v. State

487 S.W.2d 624, 253 Ark. 512, 1972 Ark. LEXIS 1506
Supreme Court of Arkansas·Decided December 4, 1972·No. 5758·Published·Cited by 37 cases

Opinions

John A. Fogleman, Justice.

Thomas D. Hill was found guilty of disposing of property subject to a lien and sentenced to imprisonment for one year. He asserts the following points for reversal:

I.
1. The verdict herein is contrary to both the law and the evidence.
2. There is no evidence to support a conviction of the defendant on a charge of disposing of property subject to a lien.
3. The criminal statute under which this defendant was prosecuted does not apply to the facts in this situation.
4. The trial court erred in that defendant’s motions for dismissal of the charges and for a directed verdict should have been granted as a matter of law and also based upon the evidence.
II.
The trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion for a dismissal of the charges as this was clearly a prosecution to aid in the collection of a debt and as such violated the defendant’s constitutional rights.
III.
The Howard County Circuit Court was without venue or jurisdiction over the subject matter of this cause of action and should have dismissed said cause of action upon the motion of defendant.
IV.
It was error for the court to allow the prosecutor to introduce into evidence the total amount of the debt owed to the Nashville Production Credit Association by defendant as this cause of action included only $19,000.00, particularly in view of the pretrial order denying this information to defendant’s counsel.
V.
The court erred in allowing prejudicial statements to be made by the prosecutor in his opening and closing arguments.
VI.
The court erred in allowing the prosecuting attorney to attempt to impeach their own witness as no evidence was ever introduced of prior contradictory statements.
VII.
The court erred by refusing to give defendant’s requested instructions No. 1, 2, and 3.

Appellant Hill was charged with having disposed of six bulls, 136 cows and 65 calves by selling the same to Ted Powell for the sum of $19,000 on December 9, 1969, while the cattle were subject to a lien in favor of Nashville Production Credit Association by reason of a financing statement and security agreement executed by Hill on November 10, 1969, with the intent to defeat the Production Credit Association in the collection of the debt secured by these instruments.

The applicable statute is Ark. Stat. Ann. § 41-1928 (Repl. 1964), which reads:

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, barter, exchange or otherwise dispose of, or to remove beyond the limits of this State or of any county in which a landlord’s or laborer’s lien exists, or in which a lien has been created by virtue of a mortgage or deed of trust, or to which title has been retained by the vendor, any property of any kind, character or description, upon which a lien of the kind enumerated above exists or to which title still remains in the vendor: provided, such sale, barter, exchange, removal or disposal of such property be made with the intent to defeat the holder of such lien or title in the collection of the debt secured by such mortgage, laborer’s or landlord’s lien or retention of title.

Since we find that there was reversible error in the denial of appellant’s requested instruction No. 2, we first treat appellant’s Point VII. The court gave its instructions 9 and 11 relative to the effect of the consent of Nashville Production Credit Association to the sale. By instruction No. 9, the jury was told that if it found other necessary elements of the offense and that the cattle were sold dnd disposed of by the said Thomas D. Hill without the consent of Nashville Production Credit Association, it would find Hill guilty. Instruction No. 11 read:

Members of the jury, you are instructed that if you find from the evidence presented in the trial of this cause that the Nashville Production Credit Association, by or through its Board of Directors, one or more, its Manager, or any one of its employees consented to the sale of the cattle, you should acquit the defendant, Thomas Hill.

The court refused defendant’s requested instruction No. 2, which reads:

You are instructed that consent may be expressed or implied from the conduct of the parties.

There is no question that the consent of the injured party is a defense to the charge, because there is no mortgage lien after a sale with the lienholder’s consent. Lawhorn v. State, 108 Ark. 474, 158 S.W. 113; Osborne v. State, 109 Ark. 440, 160 S.W. 215; Murry v. State, 150 Ark. 461, 234 S. W. 425. See also, Mitchell v. Mason, 184 Ark. 1000, 44 S.W. 2d 672. The state argues that, in order to constitute a defense, the consent must be actual, not implied, and that the court’s instruction No. 11 fairly and correctly states the law. We do not agree with the first argument and find instruction No. 11 incomplete in that respect. In arriving at this conclusion, we are influenced by the rule that a criminal statute must be strictly construed in favor of one accused. Burke v. State, 235 Ark. 882, 362 S.W. 2d 695, cert. denied, 373 U.S. 922, 83 S. Ct. 1523, 10 L. Ed. 2d 421. Nothing may be left to intendment and all doubts must be resolved in favor of the defendant in construing such statutes. Stuart v. State, 222 Ark. 102, 257 S.W. 2d 372. See also, Ladwig v. Arlington Hotel Company, 225 Ark. 972, 286 S.W. 2d 853. No case may be brought within the purview of a criminal statute by construction unless it is completely within the words of the statute. Lewis v. State, 220 Ark. 259, 247 S.W. 2d 195; Giles v. State, 190 Ark. 218, 78 S.W. 2d 70. This rule is applied in determining the meaning of the word “consent” in criminal statutes. Baker v. State, 147 Tenn. 421, 248 S.W. 548 (1923).

In its broadest sense “consent” may be either express or implied. State v. Neterer, 33 Wash. 535, 74 P. 668 (1903); Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, Unabridged, Rawle’s Third Revision. It may be based upon an express agreement or it may also be implied from actions, a course of conduct, silent acquiescence or even inaction. In re Estate of Seeger, 208 Kan. 151, 490 P. 2d 407 (1971); Vick v. Zumwalt, 130 Col. 148, 273 P. 2d 1010 (1954); State v. Stanfield, 1 S.W. 2d 834 (Mo. 1927).

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Hill v. State, 487 S.W.2d 624, 253 Ark. 512, 1972 Ark. LEXIS 1506 (Ark. 1972).

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