People v. Albow

• Decision Date: 28 November 1893
• Citation: 140 N.Y. 130,35 N.E. 438
• Parties: PEOPLE v. ALBOW.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

140 N.Y. 130

35 N.E. 438

PEOPLE

v.ALBOW.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 28, 1893.

Appeal from supreme court, general term, second department.

George Albow was indicted under Pen. Code, § 527, for offering for exchange ‘green goods.’ From a judgment of the general term (24 N. Y. Supp. 519) affirming a judgment of conviction, he appeals. Reversed.

Daniel O'Connell, for appellant.

Horace D. Hufcut, Dist. Atty., for the People.

ANDREWS, C. J.

We think the indictment is fatally defective, in that it does not allege the commission of the offense created by section 527 of the Penal Code. The section is entitled ‘Advertising Counterfeit Money,’ and the purpose of the enactment was to reach the nefarious business of offering or pretending to offer for sale counterfeit money, and inducing people, by what is popularly known as the ‘green goods' scheme, or similar devices, to invest their money, receiving in return either counterfeit money, or packages purporting to contain counterfeit money, but which in fact contained blank paper, or something of like character. The selling or offering to sell counterfeit money or tokens of value, or what purports to be such, or the aiding or abetting any scheme or device having for its purpose the sale or the putting in circulation of counterfeit money or tokens, or what purports to be such, is the gravamen of the offense. It is that offense alone at which the statute is aimed, and it has no reference to any other frauds upon the public or individuals. The indictment alleges that the defendant aided and abetted a scheme for offering for sale or exchange ‘green goods,’ by means of circulars and letters, and that thereby Cassell and Hogshead were induced to come to Poughkeepsie, in this state, to deal with the defendant; that the defendant there stated to Cassell and Hogshead that he would take them to an old gentleman in New York, ‘who had one hundred thousand dollars like a one-dollar greenback, so called, being a treasury note issued by the government of the United States;’ that defendant showed Cassell the good $1 note, and told him that he could exchange $100 of his money with the ‘old gentleman’ for $1,000 of the old gentleman's money, which was as good as the $1 bill shown; that the defendant asked Cassell to go with him to the city of New York ‘to get said money of the old gentleman, which said money said Albow called and designated as goods,’ etc. There is no averment in the indictment that the...