Douglas v. State

• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: GARDNER; MacINTYRE, P. J., and TOWNSEND
• Citation: Douglas v. State, 57 S.E.2d 438, 80 Ga.App. 761 (Ga. App. 1950)
• Decision Date: 28 January 1950
• Docket Number: No. 2,No. 32832,32832,2
• Parties: DOUGLAS v. STATE

Page 438

57 S.E.2d 438

80 Ga.App. 761

DOUGLAS v. STATE.

No. 32832.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

Jan. 28, 1950.

Custer & Kirbo, Bainbridge, Thomas A. Clark, Bainbridge, for plaintiff in error.

M. E. O'Neal, Sol., Bainbridge, for defendant in error.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court.

GARDNER, Judge.

The defendant was convicted under Code, § 13-9933. His motion for a new trial was overruled and he assigns error here. The facts are that the defendant was in prison in Quincy, Florida, and the prosecutor, Tifton Mills, went to Quincy and obtained the release of the defendant. The defendant thereafter executed to Mills a note for $300 to compensate Mills for the amount expended for the release of the defendant. Thereafter, when the note was past due, the defendant gave to Mills a check for the amount of the note. At the time the check was given the defendant did not obtain the note. So far as the record reveals, Mills had possession of the note at the time of the trial. The defendant did not have sufficient funds or credit at the bank on which the check was drawn to pay the check, and the bank refused to pay it.

Under the section of the Code above cited, the transaction as outlined did not constitute a crime. The transaction in the instant case is almost identical with the facts in the case of Berry v. State, 153 Ga. 169, 111 S.E. 669, 35 A.L.R. 370. See also the case of Driskell v. State, 47 Ga.App. 741, 171 S.E. 389; Mathewson v. Ruben, 55 Ga.App. 837, 191 S.E. 499; McGee v. State, 97 Ga. 199, 22 S.E. 589; Albert v. State, 11 Ga.App. 93, 74 S.E. 714. This court in the case of Mobley v. State, 13 Ga.App. 728, 733, 79 S.E. 906, 908, dealing with the general principle of law governing similar transactions to that involved in the instant case, said: 'In all cases, civil or criminal, where fraud is claimed to have been committed, the...