State v. Small

• Citation: 272 Mo. 507,199 S.W. 127
• Decision Date: 04 December 1917
• Docket Number: No. 20334.,20334.
• Parties: STATE v. SMALL.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

199 S.W. 127

272 Mo. 507

STATE v. SMALL.

No. 20334.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

December 4, 1917.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jackson County; Ralph S. Latshaw, Judge.

Benjamin W. Small was convicted of obtaining money by false pretenses, and appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Defendant, having been convicted in the criminal court of Jackson county upon an indictment charging him with obtaining the sum of $500 by false pretense, and having had assessed against him as punishment therefor imprisonment in the state penitentiary for a term of four years, after the conventional motions has appealed.

An attack has been made upon the sufficiency of the indictment in this case. It is necessary, therefore, to set it forth in full herein. Formal parts, signatures, and verification omitted, this indictment reads thus:

"The grand jurors for the state of Missouri, duly impaneled, sworn, and charged to inquire, within and for the body of the county of Jackson, upon their oaths present and charge that B. W. Small, Jennie L. Denham, and May Dobbins, whose Christian names in full are unknown to said jurors, late of the county aforesaid, on the 12th day of April, 1915, conspiring, combining, and confederating together for the purpose of cheating the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation organized and existing according to law, of its money, goods, chattels, and personal property, did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, and designedly, with the felonious intent then and there to cheat and defraud the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation as aforesaid, of its money, goods, chattels, and personal property, represent, pretend, and say to one John H. Lucas, the agent, attorney, and servant of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation as aforesaid, that on the 19th day of December, 1914, the said Jennie L. Denham and May Dobbins were then and there passengers upon a certain line known as the Country Club line of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, and whilst they were passengers as aforesaid and being transported from a point at or near Forty-Third street and Main street to their homes at 1015 Locust street, in Kansas City, Jackson county, Mo., said car at or near Twenty-Fourth street and Grand avenue, Kansas City, Jackson county, Mo., was brought into violent contact and collision with the car of another company, which was known and designated as the Strang line, and which said car at that point uses the tracks of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, and as a result of the collision between the two cars, as aforesaid, that the said Jennie L. Denham and the said May Dobbins were then and there jerked and thrown in such a manner in said car that they received permanent and lasting injuries to their bodies; that their backs were wrenched and strained; that all the internal organs of the said Jennie L. Denham and May Dobbins were injured; that they received a shock to their entire nervous systems, and as a result of the collision between the said car of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, and the car of the Strang line, as aforesaid, they received permanent and lasting injuries as hereinbefore set out.

"And, furthering their design to cheat and defraud, they, the said B. W. Small, Jennie L. Denham, and May Dobbins, and each of them, did then and there unlawfully, feloniously, and designedly employ and consult an attorney at law, to wit, one Milton J. Oldham, and did then and there place in the hands of the said Milton J. Oldham a statement signed by the said Jennie L. Denham and May Dobbins setting out the collision between the two cars and the injuries received by them, the tenor and purport of which said statement is to these jurors unknown, and that the said Milton J. Oldham, acting as the attorney for the said Jennie L. Denham and May Dobbins, did then and there communicate to John H. Lucas, the agent, attorney, and servant of the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, and did then and there show and exhibit to the said John H. Lucas said statement, purported to be the statement of the said Jennie L. Denham and the said May Dobbins, setting out that they were then and there passengers upon a Country Club car, as aforesaid, and were on their way back to their homes in northerly direction in Kansas City, Jackson county, Mo., when said car then and there collided with a car known as the Strang line car, which uses the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company's tracks at or near Twenty-Fourth street and Grand avenue in Kansas City, Jackson County, Mo., where the said collision took place. And the said John H. Lucas, relying on the false and fraudulent statements communicated to him by the said Milton J. Oldham, the attorney and agent of the said Jennie L. Denham and May Dobbins, to be true, and being deceived thereby, was induced by reason thereof to pay, and did then and there pay, to the said May Dobbins, the sum of $500 lawful money of the United States of the value of $500 of the money, goods, chattels, and personal property of the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, and the said B. W. Small, Jennie L. Denham, and May Dobbins, by means and by use of the false and fraudulent statements and pretenses so communicated to the said John H. Lucas, the agent, attorney, and servant of the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, by them, the said B. W. Small, Jennie L. Denham, and May Dobbins, did obtain of and from the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation, as aforesaid, the sum of $500 of the money, goods, chattels, and personal property of the said Metropolitan Street Railway Company, a corporation as aforesaid.

"Whereas, in truth and in fact, that on the said 19th day of December, 1914, the said Jennie L. Denham and May Dobbins were not then and there passengers upon a certain line known as the Country Club line, which said Country Club car collided with a car known and designated as the Strang line car, at...