Turnipseed v. State

185 S.E. 403, 53 Ga. App. 194, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 34
Court of Appeals of Georgia·Decided March 31, 1936·No. 24971·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

MacIntyre, J.

Robert F. Turnipseed was tried and convicted on each of the' three counts of an indictment charging him with cheating and swindling. The questions for determination are whether or not the court erred (1) in overruling special demurrers to each count of the indictment, or (3) in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment, or (3) in overruling the motion for new trial. The first count charges that on July 19, 1934, in Fulton County, Georgia, the defendant committed the offense of “cheating and swindling,” for that he did conspire with Sam Worthy and Q. T. [195] Worthy to cheat, wrong, and defraud Tripod Paint Company out of the sum of $135 in money; and in pursuance of said conspiracy the accused-and the two persons above named did represent to 'Tripod Paint Company that E. M. Brooks was struck on his right hip and back by a truck of said company and knocked into the curbstone. The count continues as follows: “The representations above quoted, that a person named E. M. Brooks was struck by a truck of the Tripod Paint Company on his right hip and back and knocked into the curbstone, were untrue and were known to the said Eobert E. Turnipseed to be untrue; said representations were made to the Tripod Paint Company for the purpose and with the intent to cheat, wrong, and defraud said company out of the sum of $135 in money, and by virtue of said wilful misrepresentations accused did cheat, wrong, and defraud said company out of the sum of $63 in money.”

We shall separately consider each paragraph of the special demurrer to count one of the indictment. Paragraph 1 avers that “the count does not set forth the name of the person, employees, agents, or officials of said Tripod Paint Co. to whom said alleged false representations were made.” The rule laid down in 1 Wharton’s Criminal Procedure, 845, § 633, is that “where the allegation is that a corporation was defrauded, or attempted to be defrauded, it is sufficient to set out the name of such corporation, without designating any particular individual, officer, or agent of such corporation to whom the representations or false pretenses were made.” In State v. Turley, 142 Mo. 403, 410 (44 S. W. 267), the court said: “It is not necessary in an indictment charging one with obtaining goods from a corporation by false and fraudulent representations, etc., to allege the representations were made to any officer or employee of the company, or believed by them. The indictment is sufficient if such allegations were made as would be necessary in an indictment for the same kind of an offense against a natural person. . . No one would contend that representations of the character with which the defendant is charged with making, if made in writing and addressed to a corporation, that it would be necessary to allege that they were relied upon by some particular director or agent of the corporation; and the same rule applies when such statements and representations are verbal. The indictment sufficiently informed the defendant of [196] the nature of the offense charged against him, and was in all respects, so far as we have been able to discover, free from objection.” “An indictment for obtaining money by false pretense, alleging that the false pretense was made to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, a corporation, sufficiently alleges the person to whom the false pretense was made, since section 1, Code, 1907, provides that the word person, shall include a corporation as well as natural person.” Bailey v. State, 159 Ala. 4 (48 So. 791, 17 Ann. Cas. 623). It might be observed here that our Code of 1933, § 102-103, declares that “Person includes a corporation.” In State v. Hulder, 78 Minn. 524 (81 N. W. 532), a person was convicted under an indictment charging that the defendant obtained money from a railway company by falsely representing that the defendant had been injured while in the employment of said company. The court followed the rule in the Turley case, supra. Another decision in line is People v. Goodhart, 248 Ill. 373 (94 N. E. 148). Counsel for the plaintiff in error rely on the ruling in McLendon v. State, 16 Ga. App. 262 (85 S. E. 200), as follows: “An allegation in such an accusation that certain false and fraudulent representations were made ‘to the firm of Rice & Phelps, a partnership composed of W. B. Rice and W. T. Phelps,' as to the ownership of described property, etc., was not sufficiently definite, as the accused was entitled to know the specific person or persons to whom the representations wore made.” Wo do not care to extend this ruling any farther; and the McLendon case is differentiated from the instant case in that in the one case the representations were alleged to have been made to a partnership, and in the other the person alleged to have been defrauded was a corporation. A corporation is a legal person. A partnership is not a legal person ; and it has been held in the case of a partnership that to make the indictment good “it should have been charged that the representations were made to, and the money obtained from, the persons who composed the firm, although the allegations that they were partners might have been proper to establish the agency of the one with whom the transaction was had.” In Bates v. State, 124 Wis. 612, 620 (103 N. W. 251, 4 Ann. Cas. 365), it was said that “a count in an information for obtaining money by false pretenses charging that the money was obtained from TI. P. Proctor & Son is bad in that it fails to specify any person from whom the money was ob[197] tained.” It was also said that “the words H. Proctor & Son meant nobody.” “Person includes a corporation.” Code of 1933, § 102-103. Persons are either natural or artificial. The latter are called corporations. § 79-101. In the instant case the averment that the representations were made to the Tripod Paint Company was sufficient; for this was a representation to a person, although an artificial one. We hold that the indictment is not subject to paragraph 1 of the demurrer:

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Turnipseed v. State, 185 S.E. 403, 53 Ga. App. 194, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 34 (Ga. Ct. App. 1936).

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