Lacey v. State

68 So. 706, 13 Ala. App. 212, 1915 Ala. App. LEXIS 39
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 11, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 68 So. 706 (Lacey v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lacey v. State, 68 So. 706, 13 Ala. App. 212, 1915 Ala. App. LEXIS 39 (Ala. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinions

BROWN, J.

The counts of the indictment on which the case Avas submitted to the jury are substantially in the language of the statute to which they are each referable, and the Code forms prescribed for the offense intended to be charged thereby, and, as has been repeatedly held, ¿re sufficiently full and specific, if the defendant, [224]*224as charged, is within the provisions of the statute.—Davis v. State, 141 Ala. 84, 37 South. 454, 109 Am. St. Rep. 19; Johnson v. State, 152 Ala. 46, 44 South. 670; Coleman v. State, 150 Ala. 64; 43 South. 715; Monroe v. State, 111 Ala. 22, 20 South. 634; Wall v. State, 2 Ala. App. 157, 56 South. 57; Gleason v. State, 6 Ala. App. 49, 60 South. 518; Traylor v. State, 100 Ala. 142, 14 South. 634; Jordan v. State, 5 Ala. App. 229, 59 South. 710; Brannon v. State, 191 Ala. 29, 67 South. 1007; Bush v. State, 12 Ala. App. 260, 67 South. 847. There is no vitiating uncertainty introduced into count 4 by the averment that the property embezzled or converted by the defendant was “of or about the amount of $50,000, and of that value.”—Phelps v. People, 72 N. Y. 334. The only possible construction that can be placed on this language is that the bank notes, money, checks, or bills o.f exchange were of about the amount of $50,000 and.of about the value of $50,000, and thereby making it certain to a common intent that the property embezzled was of greater value than $25, and the offense a felony.—Thompson v. State, 48 Ala. 165; Lyon v. State, 61 Ala. 224. Furthermore, the statute authorized the property to be described in “general terms,” and the language adopted by the pleader is expressly authorized by the statute, and is sufficient.—Code 1907, § 6843; Walker v. State, 117 Ala. 42, 23 South. 149; Gleason v. State, supra; Noble v. State, 59 Ala. 73; Mayo v. State, 30 Ala. 32.

Count 12, referred to in argument of counsel for appellant, was charged out of the case by the trial court, and will not be treated, as no possible prejudice could have resulted to the defendant from the rulings on the demurrer to that count.

The criticism of counsel for appellant that counts 1, 2, 3, and 4 “fail to aver that the money which defendant-[225]*225embezzled was in his possession by virtue of his office or employment at the time of the alleged embezzlement” cannot be sustained, and is fully answered by our own case of Gleason v. State, supra, where this identical question is held against appellant’s contention. The court, speaking by Walker, P. J., said:

“We think that an averment to the effect that the defendant, being at the time the agent or clerk of another, did embezzle or fraudulently convert described personal property of his principal which had come into his possession as such agent or clerk, sufficiently shows that his relation to the property mentioned was such as to make it the subject of the offense created by the statute. The statement conveys the idea of possession or custody which was lawful and within the authority conferred by the agency alleged, so as to make the defendant’s holding of the property one in trust for the use or benefit of his principal. This amounts to the same thing as saying in the language of the statute that the defendant’s possession was by ‘virtue of his office or employment.’ ”

It is urged as an objection against some of the counts charging embezzlement that they aver that the defendant “embezzled or fraudulently converted to his own use or the-use of another” the property of his principal, without averring the name of the third person designated as “another.” The clear import of this averment is that the defendant was guilty of a fraudulent breach of the trust that had come into his possession by virtue of the fiduciary relation, and a wrongful and fraudulent assumption of dominion over it in total disregard and denial of the rights of the true owner (Wall v. State, 2 Ala. App. 164, 56 South. 57; Boutwell v. Parker, 124 Ala. 342, 27 South. 309; 15 Cyc. 521g), and it is wholly unimportant as to whether the defendant was the recipi[226]*226ent of the benefits of the crime, or whether a third person reaped the benefits thereof. For this reason, it was not necessary for the indictment to aver the name of such third person.

The averment in.the first count of the indictment that the defendant at the time of the commission of the offense charged was “a public officer of the state of Alabama, to-wit, a clerk of the board of inspectors of convicts, the same being one of the officers designated in section 6485 of the Code of Alabama,” and that he converted to his own use money received by him “in his official capacity,” presents one of the serious questions in the case. The courts of the state take judicial notice of the public officers of the state, and the source from which they derive their authority, and, if these averments are inconsistent with the provisions of the statute, they are negatived thereby, and must necessarily fail.—United States v. Smith, 124 U. S. 531, 8 Sup. Ct. 595, 31 L. Ed. 534; Cary v. State, 76 Ala. 778; Beggs v. State, 55 Ala. 108. The Supreme Court of this state has not laid down any general rule to govern in determining what is required to constitute a state officer, or a person an officer of the state. Its holdings in this respect are that, where- one derives his authority directly from the state by legislative enactment, and the duties imposed by the enactment are of a public character, and the terms and compensation are definitely fixed, such person is an officer of the state.—State, ex rel. Robertson v. McGough, 118 Ala. 164, 24 South. 395. “Every public officer, judicial, ministerial, or executive, deriving place and authority from the Constitution or laws, is an officer of this State.”—State, ex rel. Winter v. Sayre, 118 Ala. 31, 24 South. 89.

That an office created by legislative enactment, which concerns the general public as touching the administra[227]*227tión of public justice, although exercised within defined territorial limits, is an office of profit under and within the meaning of the Constitution, prohibiting one from holding an office, unless elected thereto by the people, created by the Legislature of which such person is a member, was the holding in Montgomery v. State, ex rel., etc., 107 Ala. 372, 18 South. 157, and in one of our recent cases it was held that the “deputy harbor master” selected as prescribed, and by authority of chapter 114 of the Code of 1907, regulating navigation, to whom the state, in the exercise of its police power, had granted authority to carry into effect its policy in the protection of navigation, whose duties are defined by the statute, and who was required to give a bond for their faithful performance, receiving fees or emoluments for services rendered, is an officer of the state.—American Bonding Co. v. New York & Mexican Whiting Co., 11 Ala. App. 578, 66 South. 847. “A public office is the right, authority, and duty, created and conferred by law, by which for a given period, either fixed by law or enduring at the pleasure of the creating power, an individual is invested with some portion of the sovereign functions of the government, to be exercised by him for the benefit of the public, and the individual so invested is a public officer.” —Mechem on Public Officers, § 1.

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Bluebook (online)
68 So. 706, 13 Ala. App. 212, 1915 Ala. App. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lacey-v-state-alactapp-1915.