State v. Daniels

• Court: Iowa Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: GRANGER, C. J.
• Citation: State v. Daniels, 90 Iowa 491, 58 N.W. 891 (Iowa 1894)
• Decision Date: 08 May 1894
• Parties: STATE OF IOWA v. J. B. DANIELS, Appellant

58 N.W. 891

90 Iowa 491

STATE OF IOWA v. J. B. DANIELS, Appellant

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

May 8, 1894

MAY 1 1894.

Appeal from Harrison District Court.--HON. SCOTT M. LADD, Judge.

INDICTMENT for designedly and by false pretenses securing the signature of another to a written instrument. There was a verdict of guilty and a judgment, from which the defendant appealed.

Reversed.

S. H Cochran for appellant.

John Y Stone, Attorney General, and Thomas A. Cheshire for the state.

OPINION

GRANGER, C. J.

The section of the Code under which the indictment is found is 4073, and it provides that "if any person designedly or by false pretenses, * * * and with intent to defraud, * * * obtain the signature of any person to a written instrument, * * * he shall be punished," etc. The indictment in this case charges the obtaining of the signature of one D. A Bendon to a promissory note, but it does not charge that the signature was obtained with intent to defraud, and it is urged that the indictment is fatally defective. It is clearly so, and that fact is not questioned in argument, but it is said that no objection of any kind was made to the indictment below, nor was there a motion in arrest of judgment, and that the objection can not be first raised in this court. That rule obtains in civil, but not in criminal, cases. The law requires the supreme court, on appeal in criminal cases, to...