People v. Behee

• Decision Date: 19 February 1892
• Citation: 51 N.W. 515,90 Mich. 356
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: PEOPLE v. BEHEE.

51 N.W. 515

90 Mich. 356

PEOPLE v. BEHEE.

Supreme Court of Michigan

February 19, 1892

Exceptions from recorder's court of Detroit; F. H. CHAMBERS, Judge.

Information against Charles Behee for obtaining money under false pretenses. From a conviction, defendant appeals. Reversed.

Wilcox & Whelan, for appellant.

A. A. Ellis, Atty. Gen., and Samuel W. Burroughs, Pros. Atty., for the People.

LONG J.

The respondent was convicted in the recorder's court in the city of Detroit, September 8, 1891, of the offense of obtaining property by false pretenses. After the jury had been impaneled, and a witness sworn for the people, respondent's counsel objected to any testimony being given, because there was no offense charged in the information. The information charges "that Charles Behee, late of said city of Detroit, heretofore, to-wit, on the 9th day of July, A. D. 1891, at the said city of Detroit in the county aforesaid, with intent to cheat and defraud Edwin S. Barbour, and fraudulently to obtain five dollars in money, of the value of five dollars, did designedly and falsely represent and pretend to Edwin S. Barbour that he the said Charles Behee, was collecting money for Mrs. Algoe a poor woman whose son, Frank Algoe, was killed on the Transit Railway, in the city of Detroit, June 6, 1891, and was her only support; and believing the said false pretenses and representations, made as aforesaid, by the said Charles Behee, he, the said Edwin S. Barbour, was then and there deceived thereby, and was then and there induced, by means of the said false pretenses and representations made as aforesaid, to deliver, and did then and there deliver, five dollars in money, of the value of five dollars, of the property of the Detroit Stove-Works, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Michigan, to him, the said Charles Behee, and the said Charles Behee did then and there designedly, by means of false pretenses and representations made as aforesaid, unlawfully and fraudulently obtain from the said Edwin S. Barbour five dollars in money, and of the value of five dollars, of the goods and property of the said Detroit Stove-Works, with intent then and there to cheat and defraud the said Detroit Stove-Works of the same; whereas, in truth and in fact, the said Charles Behee was not authorized to collect any money for the said Mrs. Algoe, and that there was no accident on the said Transit Railway Company in the city of Detroit on the 6th day of June, 1891; to the great damage and deception of the Detroit Stove-Works, and to the evil example of all others in like cases offending, contrary to the form of the statute," etc. The objections are: (1) That the information fails to allege that Mr. Barbour had any connection with the Detroit Stove-Works, as agent or otherwise, or that he was authorized by the company to give money in charity or for any other purpose; (2) that the information fails to allege a scienter; (3) that the information fails to allege that the pretenses were false in fact. The information is filed under section 9161, How. St. Mich., which provides "that every person who, with intent to defraud or cheat, shall designedly, by color of any false tokens or writing, or by any other false pretenses, * * * obtain from any person any money, * * * shall be punished."

Upon the first point it is not contended but that the information would be sufficient, though the false pretenses were alleged to have been made to an agent, if he had authority to give or sell or dispose of the property obtained by such false pretenses, though the principal did not act thereon otherwise than through the agent. In People v. Wakely, 62 Mich. 297, 28 N.W. 871, this exact point was passed upon, and it was there said: "It is competent to allege in the information that the false...