Chauncey v. State

• Decision Date: 30 May 1901
• Citation: 130 Ala. 71,30 So. 403
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Parties: CHAUNCEY v. STATE.

30 So. 403

130 Ala. 71

CHAUNCEY v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 30, 1901

Appeal from city court of Montgomery; William H. Thomas, Judge.

J. M Chauncey was convicted of obtaining board from an innkeeper by fraudulent representations, and he appeals. Reversed.

The indictment contained two counts. In the first count the false representation charged was that the defendant represented that he was the supreme grand treasurer of the Knights of the Mystic Chain. In the second count the false representation was that the defendant had money to pay his board in the Merchants' & Planters' Bank of Montgomery. W. H Maybin was named as the keeper of the boarding house in each of these counts. On the trial of the case W. H. Maybin testified that he and his wife jointly kept a boarding house that the defendant and another man came together to the boarding house kept by him and his wife; that the defendant made the terms for the board with the witness, and assumed to pay the bills for himself and his companion; that, after a few days elapsed, the witness asked the defendant for the amount then due for their board, and the defendant told the witness that he (the defendant) was going to organize a branch lodge of the Knights of the Mystic Chain, and out of the receipts obtained from the initiation fees he would settle his board bill; that the defendant did not do as he had promised to do, and afterwards the witness had another conversation with him, in which witness asked him for the payment of his board, and the defendant told him that the money to pay his board was in the Merchants' &amp Planters' Bank; that the defendant made this statement to the witness several times, but that his board bill was never paid. The witness Maybin further testified that he did not believe the statements made by the defendant to have the money with which to pay his board. He further testified that one morning after the defendant had been boarding with him for some time he told the witness that he was going to Birmingham, and, upon witness declining to let him take his baggage from the house until he had paid his board bill, the defendant gave the witness a check on the Merchants' &amp Planters' Bank, making the statement that the money was in the bank for the payment thereof; that the check was presented to the bank, but was not paid. The defendant, as a witness in his own behalf, admitted owing the board bill, but denied having made the statements testified to by the witness Maybin. He further testified that, just before leaving for Birmingham, he gave Maybin a check on the Merchants' &amp Planters' Bank for the amount of his board, and that, to cover this order, he drew his draft on the Birmingham representative of the Knights of the Mystic Chain, and left the draft at the Merchants' & Planters' Bank, and that arrangements were made to have the draft cashed; but that, before this was done, the defendant was arrested on a warrant sworn out by the witness Maybin, and that thereupon defendant became indignant, and stopped the payment of the order given on the Merchants' & Planters' Bank. This was substantially all the evidence. The defendant, among others,...