Slater v. Commonwealth, Record No. 2529.

• Decision Date: 02 March 1942
• Docket Number: Record No. 2529.
• Parties: GEORGE SLATER v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Page 264

179 Va. 264

GEORGE SLATER v. COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA.

Record No. 2529.

Supreme Court of Virginia, Richmond.

March 2, 1942.

Present, All the Justices.

1. LARCENY — Definition. — Larceny is the wrongful or fraudulent taking of personal goods of some intrinsic value, belonging to another, without his assent and with the intention to deprive the owner thereof permanently.

2. LARCENY — Animus Furandi — Must Accompany Taking. — In larceny the animus furandi must accompany the taking.

3. LARCENY — Animus Furandi — Imported from Wrongful Taking. — The wrongful taking of property in itself imports the animus furandi.

4. LARCENY — Definition — Larceny Distinguished from Unauthorized Use of Automobile. — The main difference between common law larceny and the statutory offense of unauthorized use of an automobile is that in the former there must be an intent to deprive the owner of his property permanently, while in the latter the intent is to deprive the owner of possession of his automobile temporarily and without any intent to steal the same. The intent with which property is taken determines the offense.

5. LARCENY — Abandonment of Property — Larceny Complete though Property Later Abandoned. — When one wrongfully takes property of another with intent to deprive the owner thereof, larceny is complete, though the accused afterwards abandons it.

6. LARCENY — Prosecution and Punishment — Evidence Showing Larceny and Not Unauthorized Use of Automobile — Case at Bar. — In the instant case, a prosecution for larceny of an automobile, accused contended that he was guilty of the lesser offense of unauthorized use of an automobile as provided in Code of 1936, sections 2154(94) and 4480. He testified that he intended driving to a neighboring town and there abandoning the automobile and taking a train to Kentucky, that he did not have the consent of the owner to take the car, but that he had no intention of stealing or depriving the owner of the car permanently. He stated that he never intended to return the car but intended to abandon it in the neighboring town.

Held: That the evidence of unauthorized use was entirely absent and that of larceny was complete.

Error to a judgment of the Circuit Court of Wythe county. Hon. Jno. S. Draper, judge presiding.

The opinion states the case.

Thomas F. Walker, for the plaintiff in error.

Abram P. Staples, Attorney-General, and Walter E. Rogers, Special Assistant, for the Commonwealth.

GREGORY, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

George Slater was convicted of the larceny of an automobile and sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. His position in the lower court was, and here is, that he was guilty of the lesser offense of unauthorized use of an automobile (Michie's Code, section 2154(94) and section 4480.)

The facts are not in dispute. On June 6, 1941, at ten o'clock at night, the accused and one Clarence Hopkins attempted or started to take an automobile which was parked on Fourth avenue in Wytheville, but some one appeared on the front porch of the residence in front of which the car was parked and frightened them away. They walked up to Main street and proceeded on Main street to a point in front of the office of Dr. Chitwood. There the car of Dr. Chitwood was parked, and they wrongfully took his car and drove it away without his knowledge or consent. Sometime later, while Slater was driving, the car ran off the road which runs to Bluefield, West Virginia, at a point in Bland county, some fourteen or fifteen miles from Wytheville. The car was wrecked and damaged to the extent of several hundred dollars.

Both Slater and Hopkins had been drinking. After the wreck Slater walked to a filling station one-half mile distant for help. Hopkins had been badly injured. A cab driver was at the filling station and he drove to the place of wreck and brought them to "Fry's Cottage" in Wythe county where he left them. The report of the wreck caused the Wythe county officers to suspect that the car belonged to Dr. Chitwood. They went to the scene and found Dr. Chitwood's car. Slater and Hopkins were brought to Wytheville, where Hopkins was treated by Dr. Chitwood.

Slater testified that they intended driving to Bluefield,...