Phillips v. Bell

94 So. 699, 84 Fla. 225
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedAugust 16, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 94 So. 699 (Phillips v. Bell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Phillips v. Bell, 94 So. 699, 84 Fla. 225 (Fla. 1922).

Opinion

Browne, C. J

John Phillips was convicted in the County Judge’s Court of Okaloosa County on a complaint charging that he ‘ ‘ did unlawfully, and with intent to injure and defraud Bullard-Sellars & Co., a partnership composed of A. F. Bullard, W. B. Sellars and H. K. Bullard make and enter into a contract with them to perform labor for them, and thereby obtain from the said Bullard-Sellars & Co., the sum of $175.00 as credit and advances, contrary to [226]*226the statute in such eases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Florida.”

The Act under consideration is as follows:

“AN ACT to Provide a Penalty to be imposed Upon Any Person in This State Who Shall, With Intent to Injure and Defraud, Obtain or Procure Money or Other Things of Value on a Contract or Promise to Perform Labor or Service and Prescribing a Rule of Evidence Governing Same.
“Section 1. Any person in this State who shall, with intent to injure and defraud, under and by reason of a contract or promise to perform labor or service, procure or obtain money or other thing of value as a credit, or as advances, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding Five Hundred ($500.00) Dollars, or,by imprisonment not exceeding six months.
“Sec. 2. In all prosecutions for a violation of the foregoing section the failure or refusal, without just cause", to perform such labor or service or to pay for the money or other thing of value so obtained or procured, shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to injure and defraud.” Chap. 7917, Acts of 1919, Laws of Florida.

On writ of error from the judgment of the Circuit Court, demanding the pxnsoner on proceedings in habeas corpios, this Act is assailed, as in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, under authority of Bailey v. State of Alabama, 219 U. S. 219, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 145.

In discussing that decision we will consider it in connection with Bailey v. State of Alabama, 211 U. S. 452, 29 Sup. [227]*227Ct. Rep. 141, when the Alabama statute was first before the Supreme Court of the United States.

There are material differences between the Alabama statute as enacted in 1896, and the Florida statute. The former provided that any person who with intent to injure or defraud his employer entered into a written contract for service and thereby obtained from his employer money or other personal property, and with like intent and without just cause, cmd without refunding the money or paying fat' the property, refuse to perform the service, should be punished as if he had stolen it.” (Italics are ours.)

The Florida statute makes it a crime for any person “with intent to injure and defraud, under and by reason of a contract or promise to perform labor or service, procure or obtain money or other thing of value as a credit, or as advances.” There is no provision in the Florida statute similar to the italicised portion of the Alabama statute.

The Bailey case reported in 211 U. S. 452, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 141, before the court on writ of error from the judgment of the Supreme Court’ of Alabama affirming a judgment of a judge of the Montgomery City Court denying a discharge on habeas corpus proceedings brought before the trial and conviction of the accused.

The question of whether the Alabama statute as a whole, was in violation of the constitution and laws of the United States was not decided, but the court said: “All that appears from the record with regard to the .foundation of the case against him is that the plaintiff in error is held on a charge of having obtained money under a written contract with intent to defraud. There is no doubt that such conduct may be made a crime.” Bailey v. State of Alabama, supra. Subsequently, Bailey was tried and convicted, [228]*228and upon his conviction being affirmed by the Supreme Court of Alabama, writ of error was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States where the judgment was reversed.

The provisions of the Alabama statute considered by the court in deciding it to be unconstitutional, were: (1) the failure or refusal of the accused to perform the service, contracted, or to refund the money without just cause, and the amendment to the statute enacted in 1907, providing that the refusal or failure without just cause to perform the service, or to refund the money, shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to defraud.

Mr. Justice Hughes who delivered the opinion of the court, began the discussion of the case with these words: “We pass then to the consideration of the amendment, through the operation of which under the charge of the trial court this conviction was obtained.” In the next paragraph he says: ! ‘ But the refusal or failure to perform the service,' without just cause, constitutes the breach of the contract.1 ’

There is nothing in the Florida statute, except in relation to the rule of evidence, about the refusal or failure "to perform the service without just cause. The crime under the Florida statute is complete when one obtains money or other thing of value with intent to injure and defraud, under and by reason of a contract or promise to perform labor or service, and consequently what was said by Mr. Justice Hughes is not applicable to Section 1 of the Florida statute.

It is apparent that the decision is predicated upon the amendment making proof of failure to perform the service or liquidate the debt prima facie evidence of the guilt of the accused, considered “inconnection with the rule of evidence [229]*229in Alabama that the accused cannot testify in regard to uncommunieated motives. ’ ’

Section 2 of the Florida statute is of the same import as the amendment to the Alabama statute that received the condemnation of the Supreme Court of the United States. Both make “the failure or refusal, without just cause, to perform such labor or service or to pay for the money or other thing of value sq obtained or procured shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to injure and defraud. 1 ’

But there is in this State no rule of evidence that “the accused, for the purpose of rebutting the statutory presumption, shall not be allowed to testify as to his uncommunieated motives, purpose or intention. Bailey v. State, 161 Ala. 77, 78.” Bailey v. State of Alabama, 219 U. S. 219, 228, 236, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 145.

Even if Section 2 of the Florida Act is unconstitutional, which is not decided, the decision in this case is not 'affected thereby, as none of the testimony introduced in the County Judge’s Court is brought here in a bill of exceptions, arid there is nothing in the record to show that on the trial, the rule of evidence laid down in Section 2 was applied.

Neither is there anything in the record to show that the testimony on the trial did not clearly establish, independently of the prima facie

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Bluebook (online)
94 So. 699, 84 Fla. 225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phillips-v-bell-fla-1922.