State v. Weiler

338 S.W.2d 878, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 657
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 10, 1960
Docket47998
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 338 S.W.2d 878 (State v. Weiler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Weiler, 338 S.W.2d 878, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 657 (Mo. 1960).

Opinion

COIL, Commissioner.

The State of Missouri has appealed from the trial court’s order adjudging a substitute information insufficient. Supreme Court Rule 28.04, V.A.M.R.

*879 On September 11, 1959, a grand jury-returned and presented the following indictment: “The Grand Jurors for the State of Missouri, duly summoned from the body of said County of Jackson, being duly impaneled, sworn and charged to inquire within and for said County, upon their oaths present and charge that at the County of Jackson and State of Missouri, on or about the 14th day of December, 1953, Irvin W. Weiler, whose more and true name is unknown to the members of the Grand Jury, did then and there unlawfully, knowingly, intentionally and fel-.oniously, with intent to cheat and defraud, obtain from Consolidated Distributing Company, a corporation, certain money, to-wit: Twenty-eight Thousand (28,000.00) Dollars, by means of false and fraudulent representation and that such false and fraudulent representation were not discovered until on or about August 3, 1959, against the peace and dignity of the State.”

On September 21, 1959, defendant filed his motion to dismiss the indictment for various specified reasons. On October 8, 1959, while that motion was pending, the prosecuting attorney filed the following substitute information:

“Now comes Carrol C. Kennett Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the State of Missouri, in and’ for the body of the County of Jackson, and upon his oath informs the Court, that Irvin W. Weiler whose Christian name in full is unknown to said Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, late of the county aforesaid, on the 14th day of December, 1959, at the County of Jackson, State of Missouri, was a stockholder, officer, director and employee of Consolidated Distributing Company, a corporation, and that on said date the said Irvin W. Weiler was also the sole owner of all of the capítol stock of G. & S. Distributing Company, a Corporation, which fact was concealed by the said Irvin W. Weiler and unknown to the other stockholders, officers, directors and employees of said Consolidated Distributing Company; and that prior to said date G. & S. Distributing Company became ind-ebted to said Consolidated Distributing Company in the sum of $28,000.00, and on said date the said G. & S. Distributing Company was financially solvent and able to discharge its financial obligations; that on said date the said Irvin W. Weiler did then and there unlawfully, knowingly, intentionally and feloniously, with intent to cheat and defraud, falsely and fraudulently represented to said Consolidated Distributing Company that said G. & S. Distributing Company was unable to pay its obligations and that the said $28,000.00 indebtedness was uncollectible; that the said Irvin W. Weiler in his capacity as officer and employee of said Consolidated Distributing Company caused the said false and fraudulent representations to be entered upon the books and records of said Consolidated Distributing Company; that Consolidated Distributing Company, its other officers, directors, stockholders and employees believed said false and fraudulent representations and relying thereon approved said record entries, and further believing said false and fraudulent representations and relying thereon made no effort to collect the said $28,000.00. Whereby and by the said means the said Irvin W. Weiler as sole owner of the capítol stock of said G. & S. Distributing Company obtained the said $28,000.00 from the said Consolidated Distributing Company, and that such false and fraudulent representation and the fact that said Irvin W. Weiler was solé owner of the capitol. stock of said G. & S. Distributing Company on said date were not discovered until on or about August 3, 1959, against the peace and dignity of the State.”

Defendant’s motion to dismiss the substitute information was sustained by the court on December 3, 1959.

It is the contention of the state that the substitute information, construed in conjunction with the indictment which it replaced, properly charged a violation by defendant of Section 561.450 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S. That section proscribed the *880 obtaining of money, property, or valuable thing by means or use of a trick or deception, or false and fraudulent representation, or statement or pretense, or by any other means or instrument or device, provided that the commission of any one or more of such acts or the use of any one or more of such methods constituted what is commonly called the “confidence game.”

Defendant-respondent seeks to uphold the action of the trial court for a number of reasons, the first of which is that the ■substitute information showed upon its face that it had been filed more than three years after the commission of the offense, if any, alleged and that any trial or prose■cution for the felony sought to be charged was barred by Section 541.200 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S. We are of the opinion that the contention must be sustained for the reasons which follow.

Section 541.200, supra is: “No person shall be tried, prosecuted or punished for any felony, other than as specified in section 541.190 [capital offenses], unless an indictment be found or information be filed for such offense within three years after the commission of such offense, except indictment or informations for bribery or for corruption in office may be prosecuted if found or filed within five years after the commission of the offense.” (Bracketed insert ours.) As noted, the offense which the state contends it stated in the indictment and substitute information was a violation of Section 561.450, supra, which is a noncapital felony and thus within the compass of the 3-year limitation provision appearing in Section 541.200 above.

Sections 541.220 and 541.230 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S., set forth the only exceptions to the limitations provisions of Section 541.-200. Section 541.220 first makes the limitation ineffective as to those who flee from justice and- then provides that the time when a defendant shall not have been an inhabitant of or usually resident within this state shall not constitute any part of the limitations period; and Section 541.230 provides that the limitations period shall not include the time when an indictment, subsequently quashed, was pending.

The substitute information reasonably construed, particularly in the light of the indictment which it replaced, shows on its face that, the state affirmatively charged that the false representations allegedly made by defendant and allegedly relied upon by the Consolidated Distributing Company were made on December 14, 1953, and that on that same date defendant allegedly obtained (assuming that there is any allegation that he did so obtain) “a valuable thing.” (The substitute information alleged that the offense took place on December 14, 1959. The parties agree that the “1959” date was a typographical error, and that the date was intended to be stated as December 14, 1953, the same date charged in the indictment.) While the offense was not complete until someone parted with money or property or a thing of value by reason of a false representation or trick or device, State v. Gerhardt, 248 Mo. 535, 154 S.W. 722, 725 [3], it seems to us that the substitute information, considered in the light of the original indictment, charges that the offense, if any, was complete on December 14, 1953.

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Bluebook (online)
338 S.W.2d 878, 1960 Mo. LEXIS 657, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-weiler-mo-1960.