Smedley v. Commonwealth

127 S.W. 485, 139 Ky. 767, 1910 Ky. LEXIS 2
Court of Appeals of Kentucky·Decided April 21, 1910·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Settle

Reversing.

The appellant was convicted in the court below of the crime of embezzlement and his punishment fixed at confinement in the penitentiary for a term of six years, nnder an indictment found by the grand jury of McCracken County.

It appears from the indictment that the moneys aggregating $750.00, he was charged to have em[770]*770bezzled, belonged to tbe state and were received by him as clerk of tbe McCracken County Court from various persons owing them; that tbe sums thus received by appellant consisted of delinquent taxes, and taxes on mortgages, deeds and licenses, wbicb tbe laws of tbe state made it bis duty as county clerk to collect and pay to tbe Auditor of tbe State.

Tbe several grounds urged in tbe circuit court in support of appellant’s motion for a new trial are also relied on for a reversal of tbe judgment of conviction, but only sucb of them as we regard material will be discussed in tbe opinion.

Appellant’s first contention is that tbe indictment is fatally defective and that tbe trial court erred in overruling bis demurrer to it. Embezzlement is a statutory crime and tbe indictment against appellant was returned under section 1205, Kentucky Statutes, wbicb provides:

“If any person having tbe custody, control or distinct possession of any money, bank notes, county, city or town bonds, or Kentucky State Bonds, or United States bonds, or Treasury notes, legal tender notes, promissory notes, property effects or other movable thing of value belonging to or- for tbe use of tbe State, or of any county or district of a county, or of any municipal corporation, and under any trust or duty to keep, return, deliver, cancel, destroy, or specifically apply tbe same or any part thereof, shall, .in violation of sucb trust or duty, wilfully misapply, misappropriate, conceal, use, loan or otherwise wrongfully and fraudulently dispose of such money, bank notes, county, city or town bonds, State bonds, .United States bonds or Treasury notes, legal tender notes, promissory notes, property, effects or other movable thing of value or any part thereof, for bis [771]*771own purposes or use of another, with intent to deprive the owner or authority of the same, or of any part thereof, for the benefit of the wrong-doer or of any other person, such person so offending shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than ten years..”

The essential facts constituting the crime defined by the section, supra, are charged in the indictment, viz: (1st) That appellant received and had in custody $750.00 in lawful money of the United States; (2nd) That this money was the property of the State of Kentucky; (3rd) That the money was collected by appellant as county clerk under a duty and trust imposed by law to receive and pay it to the Auditor of the State; (4th) That instead of paying it over to the Auditor, appellant appropriated and converted the money to his own use; (5th) That such appropriation and conversion of the money by appellant was fraudulently done with the felonious intent to deprive the State thereof.

Appellant’s counsel particularly object to the failure of the indictment to give the names of the persons, or any of them, of whom appellant collected money for the State, on what account or the amounts received of them, respectively. The same objection, with others, seems to have been made to the indictment in Commonwealth v. Bodley, 17 R. 561, hut this court nevertheless held the indictment good and reversed the judgment, because the trial court had erred in sustaining a demurrer to it. Eoherson’s Criminal Law and Procedure, section 461; Commonwealth v. Fisher, 113 Ky. 491; Roland v. Commonwealth, 119 S. W. 760.

It is our conclusion that the indictment is good, therefore, the trial court committed no error in overruling the demurrer.

[772]*772Appellant also complains that the trial court overruled his motion to compel the filing by the Commonwealth ’s attorney of a bill of particulars, giving the names of the persons from whom appellant collected the moneys he was charged to have embezzled; the amount collected of each and on what account. It would perhaps have been well for the court to have sustained the motion, and we advise that the Commonwealth’s Attorney be required to furnish the bill of particulars before the case is again tried, but we are unwilling to hold that its refusal to do so was such error as will justify a reversal. The facts alleged in the indictment as constituting appellant’s guilt were such as must be presumed to have been known to him, for they were wholly matters of which the law required him to keep a record, and no one knew or could know better than he, whether funds he received for the State had by him been misappropriated or converted to his own use, and if so how much and from whom received. As said by this court in the case of Commonwealth v. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company, 110 S. W. 253:

“There is no inflexible rule as to the class of cases in. which a bill of particulars will be granted, but it rests within the sound discretion of the court, to be exercised only in furtherance of justice. But the rule is equally well established that a party will not be obliged to furnish facts already known to his adversary, nor when the means of ascertaining the facts are equally accessible to both parties.”

Bailey v. Commonwealth, 113 S. W. 140; 22 Cyc. 372.

As in other matters of- judicial discretion, the action of the trial court in granting or refusing a bill of particulars, is reviewable by this court, and sub[773]*773ject to correction if abused, but we cannot in this case say that such discretion was abused.

•We feel constrained, however, to sustain appellant’s third contention that the trial court erred in refusing him a continuance of his case. We rest this conclusion upon two grounds, either of which entitled him to the continuance: (1) That appellant was forced into trial within a few days of his discharge from the Western Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, and without opportunity-to himself or-counsel to properly prepare, his defense. -(2) That he-was tried at and during a civil term of the McCracken -Circuit Court which was and is without jurisdiction to -try criminal eases, and consequently could, not legally try appellant.

The affidavits of- appellant and counsel filed in support of the motion for a continuance sufficiently presented the facts showing his-unpreparedness for-trial, .which were -that while - confined in the asylum for .unsoundness ■ of mind he was separated from and could not consult with his counsel; nor was he then mentally capable of being of- any assistance to himself or them in preparing his case, for trial; and that during the brief interval between his return to Paducah from the asylum and the beginning of the trial, his counsel were- so constantly engaged in the trial of other cases in the McCracken and Graves Circuit Courts and the United States District Court of Paducah, as to render it impossible for them to give appellant’s case the attention it deserved or •properly prepare it for trial, either in the matter of informing themselves as to the law or facts thereof, particularly such as appertained to his defense.

The affidavits in question also presented appellant’s ■objection to the jurisdiction of the court to try him [774]*774during the civil term, and this question we will now consider.

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Smedley v. Commonwealth, 127 S.W. 485, 139 Ky. 767, 1910 Ky. LEXIS 2 (Ky. Ct. App. 1910).

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