Prater v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Prater v. State

224 So. 2d 679, 45 Ala. App. 78, 1969 Ala. App. LEXIS 325

CourtAlabama Court of Appeals

DecidedJune 17, 1969

Docket4 Div. 691

StatusPublished

Cited by1 cases

This text of 224 So. 2d 679 (Prater 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

Prater v. State, 224 So. 2d 679, 45 Ala. App. 78, 1969 Ala. App. LEXIS 325 (Ala. Ct. App. 1969).

Pincite

Opinion

CATES, Judge.

Prater was indicted and convicted of falsely pretending to Paul Brown with intent to defraud that he owned an inventor’s patent, etc. The trial judge fixed his. punishment at three years imprisonment.

The State over objection which was overruled, introduced an uncertified copy of letters patent. The heading noted Prater as “assignor to P. A. B. B. Incorporated,, Meridian, Miss.”

In its uncertified form this document was hearsay. Code 1940, T. 7, § 432. provides in pertinent part:

“As an additional or alternative mode of proof, the following documents may be proven as follows: * * *

[79]*79“9. Documents in the departments of the United States government, by the certificate of the legal custodian there-of."

The admission of this document was prejudicial and requires a reversal of the judgment of conviction. We forego consideration of how the State can prove as of the period November 11-December 2, 1964 (the span of time covered by Brown’s payments to Prater) that the letters patent (if certified) were still under assignment to a person other than Prater.

The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed and the cause is there remanded for a new trial.

Reversed and remanded.

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