Tate v. State

335 So. 2d 212, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1805
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedApril 20, 1976
Docket4 Div. 421
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 335 So. 2d 212 (Tate v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tate v. State, 335 So. 2d 212, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1805 (Ala. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

HARRIS, Judge.

Appellant was convicted of false pretense and the Court sentenced him to imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of six years. At arraignment with Court-appointed counsel present he pleaded not guilty. After sentence was imposed, he gave notice of appeal and was furnished a free transcript. Trial counsel was appointed to represent him on appeal.

Omitting the formal parts the indictment reads as follows:

“The Grand Jury of said County Charge that, before the finding of this Indictment Larry Tate, whose name is to the [213]*213Grand Jury otherwise unknown, did falsely pretend to Janice Johnson, with intent to defraud that he had on deposit in a checking account upon which checks could be drawn, in Phenix Girard Bank, Phenix City, Alabama, $1210.00 and, by means of such false pretense, obtained from the said Janice Johnson, one 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo automobile, of the value of.- $1210.00, against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama.”

Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Manley owned and operated the Auto Auction in Dothan, Alabama, in 1974. On October 29, 1974, appellant telephoned Mrs. Manley requesting information as to the procedures required to register automobiles for sale at the auction. Mrs. Manley informed appellant that he had to have a dealer’s license before he could enter his automobiles for sale at the auction and he had to file an application.

The next day, October 30, 1974, appellant went to the auction conducted by the Manleys and filed an application to enter some vehicles in the auction for sale. Mrs. Manley explained the auction process as follows:

“Well, when they buy cars, they buy it out — we have clerks out on the stand out there in the auction where they buy it, and they go pick up their pass-out; and that has all of the information about the car, who is selling, and who is buying and the price that they bought it at. Then they bring it in and we have a lot of typists, several in the office, along a table, and they bring their pass-out to somebody to be typed up. And we have Bills of Sale, and they bring their pass-outs to the typists and then she gets Bill of Sale and then the seller signs it at the top and the buyer signs it at the bottom, and then the kind of car and the price and everything is on there, and we type it up and they sign it.”

On October 30, 1974, Ms. Janice Johnson was employed by the Manleys as a clerk-typist. She testified that she registered the cars to be auctioned as they came in and placed a sales number on each car. After they were all registered, she returned to the office to type up the bill of sale for the automobile that brought the highest bid. She stated that when a car is sold to the highest bidder, he is given a pass-out slip that has all the information on it; the dealer’s name, when the car was sold on the auction stand, and the name of the purchaser. The purchaser then takes the pass-out slip to the office and a bill of sale is typed up from the information on the pass-out slip.

Mr. Louis Luther, a wholesale dealer, had registered a 1970 two-door Monte Carlo Chevrolet for sale at the auction. When it was placed for bidding, appellant was the highest bidder and became entitled to purchase the Monte Carlo. He was given his pass-out slip and carried it to the office and gave it to Ms. Janice Johnson and she typed the bill of sale and called Mr. Luther to come to the office and sign the bill of sale. Mr. Luther signed the bill of sale and handed the title directly to appellant. Appellant also signed the document and retained his copy and in the presence of Mr. Luther gave Ms. Johnson a check drawn on the Phenix Girard Bank, Phenix City, Alabama, in the amount of $1,210.00. Ms. Johnson took the check and clipped it to a copy of the bill of sale and placed it in a box behind the counter with other bills of sale. She did not notice that appellant had not signed the check. The copy of the bill of sale and the unsigned check were introduced in evidence over appellant’s objections.

Mr. Louis Luther testified that he lived at Fort Walton Beach, Florida and was engaged in the automobile wholesale business and was so engaged on October 30, 1974. That on that date he brought a number of cars to the Auto Auction in Dothan, Alabama, and among them was a 1970 Chevrolet, two-door Monte Carlo. He stated that appellant was the highest bidder on the [214]*214Monte Carlo, in the amount of $1,210.00 and he went to the office to sign the bill of sale and handed the title directly to appellant. He said when he handed appellant the title to the car, he saw a small personal check, either blue or green, in his hand.

On cross-examination he testified that he had been in the automobile business for 32 years and was familiar with the value of cars. He stated the Monte Carlo was worth $1,400.00 but he sold it for $1,210.00.

After the auction was over and Mrs. Manley was checking up, she discovered that appellant had given an unsigned check in the purchase of the Monte Carlo automobile but it was too late to call the Bank in Phenix City that day.

Mr. Carl Pickering, Vice President and Cashier of the Phenix Girard Bank of Phenix City, Alabama, testified that he had control of the records of the bank and that he had first hand knowledge of the checking account of appellant and that from September 20, 1974, to October 30, 1974, appellant did not have any money in his checking account. He stated that as a matter of fact there was an overdraft of $124.82 in this account but that it was an overdraft created by service charges on checks he had drawn against the account when there was no money in the account. It was not an actual overdraft that the bank paid out money on. He further testified that the bank closed his account because appellant kept writing checks against a depleted account in his name which caused the bank to make service charges.

Ms. Betty Tarr testified that she lived in Columbus, Georgia, and she was employed to drive cars out of Tallahassee, Florida, for McKinney Chevrolet and Mr. Louis Luther. She was in charge of a number of girls employed to drive these automobiles to auctions. She had driven cars to the Auto Auction in Dothan on past occasions. On October 30, 1974, she personally drove the 1970 Chevrolet two-door Monte Carlo that was subsequently bought at the auction by appellant. She stated she had seen appellant on two or three occasions prior to October 30, 1974, and that on that date she saw him at the auction two or three times. She said she was sitting in the dining room at the Auto Auction and looked out the window and saw appellant and his wife and another man fixing to get in the Monte Carlo and she went to the car to get some papers that she left in the car. That as she was getting into the car to get her papers, appellant was standing right next to her. She heard appellant’s wife say to him, “Larry, you didn’t sign that check you give,” and appellant said, “I didn’t intend to sign that check. I have the bill of sale and the title, so what do I care.” That after this statement was made, appellant, his wife, and the other man got in the Monte Carlo and drove away.

Appellant’s wife testified in his behalf. He did not see fit to take the witness stand. Appellant’s wife, Vickie Tate, testified that she had lived in Phenix City for about seven years and had been married to appellant for three years. That on October 30, 1974, they went to the Dothan Auto Auction and carried four cars and a motorcycle.

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Related

Crane v. Commissioner
1979 T.C. Memo. 276 (U.S. Tax Court, 1979)
Tate v. State
335 So. 2d 216 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
335 So. 2d 212, 1976 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1805, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tate-v-state-alacrimapp-1976.