State v. Debnam

• Citation: 146 S.E. 857,196 N.C. 740
• Decision Date: 13 March 1929
• Docket Number: 160.
• Parties: STATE v. DEBNAM.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

146 S.E. 857

196 N.C. 740

STATE v. DEBNAM.

No. 160.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

March 13, 1929

Appeal from Superior Court, Greene County; Romulus A. Nunn, Judge.

J. E Debnam was adjudged not guilty of voting, as a member of a county board of education, to purchase school supplies from a partnership in which he owned a pecuniary interest, and the State appeals. Affirmed. The defendant was indicted for a breach of C. S. § 4390, the material parts of which, the state admits in its brief, are as follows: "If any member of any *** Board of Education *** shall have any pecuniary interest, either directly or indirectly, proximately or remotely, in supplying any goods wares or merchandise of any nature or kind whatsoever for any of said *** schools; or if any of such officers *** shall act as agent for any *** merchant" or dealer "for any article of merchandise to be used by any of said *** schools he shall be *** deemed guilty of a misdemeanor," etc.

The jury returned the following special verdict:

1. That the defendant is a member and chairman of the board of education of Greene county.

2. That the defendant is manager of the Debnam Motor Company.

3. That the Debnam Motor Company is owned solely and exclusively by Mrs. Birdie Debnam, wife of the defendant.

4. That the defendant has no pecuniary or financial interest in the Debnam Motor Company, but works for said Debnam Motor Company on a monthly salary just as do the other employees of said company.

5. That the Debnam Motor Company, through Ray Chestnutt and H. E. Thorne, working on commission, sold to the board of education several school trucks.

6. That the county vouchers for said school trucks were payable to said Chestnutt and Thorne, were by them indorsed to the Debnam Motor Company, and became the property of said company.

7. That at said time the Debnam Motor Company was selling Ford trucks.

Upon this special verdict the defendant was adjudged "not guilty," and the state excepted and appealed.

Dennis G. Brummitt, Atty. Gen., and Frank Nash, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

J. Paul Frizzelle, of Snow Hill, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

The material charge in the indictment is this: That the defendant unlawfully and willfully, while acting in the capacity of a member of the county board of education, voted for and authorized the purchase of school trucks, etc., from the Debnam Motor Company, a partnership, in which the defendant...