State v. Jameson

• Decision Date: 26 May 1902
• Citation: State v. Jameson, 117 Iowa 312, 90 N.W. 622 (Iowa 1902)
• Parties: STATE OF IOWA v. G. C. JAMESON AND W. C. CRONE, Appellants
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

90 N.W. 622

117 Iowa 312

STATE OF IOWA v. G. C. JAMESON AND W. C. CRONE, Appellants

Supreme Court of Iowa, Des Moines

May 26, 1902

Appeal from Franklin District Court.--HON. S. M. WEAVER Judge.,

DEFENDANTS were convicted of the crime of defrauding by the use of false weights, as described in Code, section 5044, and appeal from the judgment against them.

Reversed.

Taylor & Evans for appellants.

C. W Mullen, Attorney General, JOHN Y. LUKE and E. P. Andrews for the state.

OPINION

MCCLAIN, J.

The indictment was in the following language: "The said G C. Jameson and W. C. Crone on the twenty-first day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, in the county of Franklin and state of Iowa and from thence to the finding of the indictment, were engaged in the business of buying and selling hogs and cattle, and did unlawfully, deceitfully, and fraudulently, and with intent to defraud, keep in their scale house, in said county and state, false weights for weighing cattle and hogs by them purchased, which caused the said cattle and hogs to appear of less weight, to wit, of the lesser weight, by from ten to two hundred pounds in every one thousand pounds of cattle and hogs weighed, than the real and true weight thereof, the exact lesser weight as aforesaid being unknown to the grand jury, and during said time did then and there, knowingly, unlawfully, and deceitfully, and with intent to defraud divers citizens of this state, which divers citizens are to the grand jury unknown, purchase of divers citizens of this state divers cattle and hogs, and did unlawfully, knowingly, and with intent to defraud said divers citizens, weigh said cattle and hogs so purchased with the said false weights, contrary to and in violation of law."Defendants demurred to the indictment on the grounds that it was not direct and certain as to the offense charged, in that it did not set forth the particular circumstances necessary to constitute a complete offense, and that it charged more than one offense; and they raised the same objections again by motion in arrest of judgment.The demurrer and motion were overruled, and error is assigned on the rulings.A previous indictment against these parties and others for the same crime was held not sufficient in State v. Jamison, 110 Iowa 337, 81 N.W. 594, and subsequently to the announcement of the opinion in that case the present indictment was found by the grand jury.

The indictment, as a whole, seems to be based upon a form found in 1 Wharton Procedure 499, and in Bishop Directions & Forms section 273.But the concluding portion, which we are now considering, differs from the form followed, in this: that in the latter it is charged that defendant"knowingly, willfully, and fraudulently sold to one X, certain goods, to wit: a large quantity of sugar weighed in and by the said false scales as and for twenty pounds' weight of sugar, whereas, in truth and in fact, the weight of the sugar so sold and falsely weighed as aforesaid was short...