Jessup v. State

• Decision Date: 21 May 1902
• Parties: JESSUP v. STATE.<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

68 S.W. 988

JESSUP v. STATE.¹

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

May 21, 1902.

Appeal from criminal court, Harris county; J. K. P. Gillaspie, Judge.

Chas. Jessup was convicted of uttering and passing a forged check, and he appeals. Reversed, and prosecution ordered dismissed.

Brockman & Kahn and E. T. Branch, for appellant. Robt. A. John, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

HENDERSON, J.

The indictment contains two counts. The first count charges forgery, and the second charges appellant with uttering and passing said forged instrument. Appellant was convicted under the second count, and given five years in the penitentiary.

Appellant assigns a number of errors, but, in the view we take of the case, it is only necessary to consider the assignment which raises the question of venue, and goes to the jurisdiction of the court which tried the case. This prosecution was in the criminal district court of Harris county, Tex. The evidence shows, without controversy, that the alleged forged check or draft, which is in the following form:

"$250.00. Houston, Tex., Jany. 23rd, 1901.

                "At sight pay to the order of Chas. Jessup
                two hundred and fifty no /100 dollars, with
                exchange, value received, and charge same to
                account of                  G. B. Johnson
                

"To Citizens' Bank, Prescott, Ark.

"No. ____".

—Was placed in the United States mail at Houston, and in a letter addressed to the Citizens' Bank, at Prescott, in the state of Arkansas, which draft was indorsed on the back "Chas. Jessup"; that it and accompanying letter was received by J. S. Regan, cashier of the Citizens' Bank at Prescott, Ark., and that he issued exchange, as requested in the letter, on the Chase National Bank of New York, for $249.50, which was the amount of the draft, less 50 cents for exchange, and inclosed and mailed it to defendant's address at Houston, Tex.; that G. B. Johnson, the alleged signer to the draft, lived in Arkansas, and had an account with the Citizens' Bank at Prescott. On this state of facts, the question thus presented is, did the district court of Harris county have jurisdiction of the offense of uttering said instrument?

We have a statute with reference to the venue in cases of forgery, authorizing the prosecution for said offense in any county where the written instrument was forged, or where the same was used or passed, or attempted to be used or passed; and then follows a provision with reference to venue in the prosecution of forgeries of land titles. Article 225, White's Ann. Code Cr. Proc. Of course, this does not apply. Nor do articles 230 or 232. The first relates to an injury inflicted within the state, of which the injured person dies out of the state; and the latter article, to the venue of an offense committed on any river or stream, the boundary of the state. The venue of this offense must be governed by article 246, White's Ann. Code Cr. Proc., which provides, "In all cases, except those enumerated in the previous articles of this chapter, the proper county for the prosecution of the offense is that in which the offense was committed." The charge here of which appellant was convicted was not the forgery of the instrument. He was acquitted of that, but the jury convicted him of uttering the alleged forged instrument; that is, of passing it as true. Did he pass it in Harris county, Tex.? We are not advised that this question has been before the courts of this state; but it has undergone judicial investigation in a number of other states. In a few jurisdictions the courts appear to hold that the jurisdiction is in the county in which the forged instrument was sent or mailed. U. S. v. Wright, 2 Cranch, C. C. 296, Fed. Cas. No....