Franczkowski v. State
| Decision Date | 27 May 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 333,333 |
| Citation | 239 Md. 126,210 A.2d 504 |
| Parties | , 6 A.L.R.3d 238 James FRANCZKOWSKI v. STATE of Maryland. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Gerald A. Kroop, Baltimore, for appellant.
Loring E. Hawes, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Thomas B. Finan, Atty. Gen., Charles E. Moylan, Jr. and Richard O. Motsay, State's Atty. and Asst. State's Atty., respectively, for Baltimore City, Baltimore on the brief), for appellee.
Before PRESCOTT, C. J., and HORNEY, MARBURY, OPPENHEIMER, and BARNES, JJ.
The question presented by this appeal, as to whether an attempt to obtain money or other property by a false pretense has been committed when the potential victim was not deceived and did not part with any money or property, is a novel one in this State.
About six hours after money orders and a check writer had been taker from a burglarized grocery store, the defendant presented a money order to the manager of a bargain store for payment. When the manager examined the number on the money order, he suspected its genuineness and asked the defendant to sign his name on the back of it for the purpose of detaining him. The manager then left the store--ostensibly to get funds from his bank to cash the money order--and returned with a policeman who arrested the defendant.
Although the defendant contends that he should not have been convicted of attempting to obtain money by false pretenses because the potential victim was not in fact deceived, the law is to the contrary. It is true, as was said in Davis v. State, 229 Md. 139, 141, 182 A.2d 49, 50 (1962), that '[a]n essential element 1 of obtaining money by false pretenses is that the victim actually relied upon the false representation,' but the cases and the text writers make it clear that a distinction is drawn between the completed crime and an attempt to commit it. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 312 Pa. 140, 167 A. 344, 89 A.L.R. 333 (1933); State v. Smith, 192 Minn. 237, 255 N.W. 826 (1934); People v. Camodeca, 52 Cal.2d 142, 338 P.2d 903 (1959); Benefield v. State, 151 So.2d 650 (Fla.App.1963); 35 C.J.S. False Pretenses § 36; 22 Am.Jur., False Pretenses, § 80.
The elements of an attempt to obtain money by a false pretense, like other attempts to commit a crime, are an intent to commit it, the doing of some act towards its commission, and the failure to consummate its commission. Wiley v. State, 237 Md. 560, 207 A.2d 478 (1965). And it is not necessary in order to establish an intent that the potential victim was deceived and had parted with money or property. Commonwealth v. Johnson, supra; ...
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...Crimes and Criminal Procedure (2d Ed.), See, 266, p. 297. 237 Md. at 563-64, 207 A.2d at 480. (Emphasis supplied.) Franczkowski v. State, 239 Md. 126, 210 A.2d 504 (1965), repeated the definition of "attempt" from Wiley: The elements of attempt to obtain money by a false pretense, like othe......
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Boone v. State
...and the failure to consummate its commission. Wiley v. State, 237 Md. 560, 564, 207 A.2d 478 (1965); Franczkowski v. State, 239 Md. 126, 127, 210 A.2d 504, 6 A.L.R.3d 238 (1965). In Clark & Marshall, Law on Crimes, supra, Sec. 4.06, it is stated: 'To constitute an indictable attempt to comm......
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Walker v. State
...recognized as part of the common law of Maryland. Hochheimer, Crimes and Criminal Procedure 297-298 (2d ed. 1904); Franczkowski v. State, 239 Md. 126, 127, 210 A.2d 504 (1965); Wiley v. State, 237 Md. 560, 563-564, 207 A.2d 478 (1965); Lightfoot v. State, 278 Md. 231, 360 A.2d 426 (1976); L......
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People v. Bauer
...681, 23 N.Y.S.2d 792, affd. 285 N.Y. 806, 35 N.E.2d 195; People v. Camodeca, 52 Cal.2d 142, 338 P.2d 903; Franczkowski v. State, 239 Md. 126, 210 A.2d 504, 6 A.L.R.3d 238; see generally Annot. 6 A.L.R.3d 241.) To sustain a conviction for an attempted grand larceny by false pretenses, it is ......