Lippman v. State

• Decision Date: 09 August 1894
• Citation: 104 Ala. 61,16 So. 130
• Parties: LIPPMAN v. STATE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

16 So. 130

104 Ala. 61

LIPPMAN v. STATE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

August 9, 1894

Appeal from criminal court, Jefferson county; Samuel Greene, Judge.

Leonard Lippman was convicted of conveying personal property mortgaged by him, without the consent of the mortgagee, and appeals. Affirmed.

Wm. L Martin, Atty. Gen., and John H. Miller, for the State.

BRICKELL C.J.

The appellant was prosecuted to conviction upon a complaint charging him with having sold or conveyed two Hammond typewriters, on which he had given a mortgage in writing to the Dispatch Printing Company, without the consent of the mortgagee, the mortgage debt being unpaid. A trial by jury was waived, and the case submitted for decision to the court. The bill of exceptions purports to contain all the evidence and the only question arising is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment of conviction. The material facts are that the Dispatch Printing Company, partly in payment of a debt owing it and partly for money advanced the appellant, discounted a promissory note made by his father Lewis Lippman, payable to the appellant four months after date. To secure the payment of this note, the appellant executed a mortgage conveying two Hammond typewriters and some other articles of personal property. A day or two before the maturity of the note, the appellant shipped the typewriters from Birmingham, his domicile, and that of the mortgagee, by railroad, consigned to his father, at Savannah Ga., taking from the railroad a receipt for their transportation and delivery, in which his father was named as the consignee, but which the appellant retained. The shipment was made without any previous agreement with the father, nor was he notified of it when it was made. When or how he was informed of it is not shown. It is apparent that he accepted the consignment, and had control and possession of the typewriters, for the freight was payable at Savannah; and nearly two months after the shipment, on request of the appellant, after the commencement of the prosecution, he returned the typewriters to him at Birmingham. The appellant testified that he sent the typewriters, without giving any instructions about them, intending that his father should do what he pleased with them, as he had at different times advanced to him much money. These are the material facts.

The statute on which the judgment of conviction is founded (Cr Code, § 3836) was construed in Johnson v. State, 69 Ala. 593-597. It was said: "The statute, by its words, embraces not only a sale, but a conveyance, of the property. The word 'convey,' when applied to a disposition of personal property has the signification of 'transfer;' and means the passing of title and dominion from one person to another. It is in this, its largest, sense, it is employed in this statute, intended to prohibit the mortgagor, or...