State v. Nine

• Decision Date: 08 April 1898
• Parties: STATE v. NINE.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

105 Iowa 131

74 N.W. 945

STATE

v.NINE.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

April 8, 1898.

Appeal from district court, Polk county; W. F. Conrad, Judge.

Indictment for obtaining property by false pretenses. Verdict of guilty, and a judgment thereon, from which the defendant appealed. Reversed.Dale, Kinkead & Bissell, for appellant.

Milton Remley, Atty. Gen., and Jesse A. Miller, for the State.

GRANGER, J.

The indictment is against defendant, Nine, and one John Stewart, but the trial was alone as to Nine. The property charged to have been obtained by false pretenses was boots, shoes, and other property, of the value of $800, belonging to one Joseph Lawson. For such property Lawson received two notes, one for $500 and one for $300, payable to the order of John Stewart, and signed by Walter Brinkerhoff, which notes were to be secured by mortgage on certain described land in the state of Missouri. These facts appear in the indictment, and the following is a statement of the false pretenses employed: “Which said notes W. F. Nine and John Stewart represented and agreed the said John Stewart, in the event they traded or sold said notes to the said Joseph Lawson, would indorse; and that he, the said John Stewart, would assign and transfer said notes and each of the said notes to the said Joseph Lawson; and the said W. F. Nine and John Stewart did then and there state, declare, and represent to the said Joseph Lawson that said notes were valuable and good, and the reasonable aggregate market value of said notes was eight hundred dollars of lawful money of the United States; that the said John Stewart was then and there the lawful owner and possessor of said notes; that the said John Stewart was then and there the owner and possessor of much other valuable property, personal and real; that the said John Stewart was then and there the owner of two farms, one of one hundred and twenty acres of valuable land, and the other one hundred and sixty acres of valuable land, both located in Guthrie county, Iowa, and of a certain house and lot in the vicinity of 20th and Clark streets, in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, of the reasonable market value of six thousand dollars, a more particular description and designation of said real estate being to this grand jury at this time unknown.” These averments are followed by statements of the belief and good faith of Lawson; that he relied on the representations, and delivered the boots, shoes, and other property to Nine and Stewart. It is then averred that the representations were false, and known to be so.

It is thought that the indictment is fatally defective because it fails to allege that the notes were indorsed by Stewart. If the fact of Stewart's indorsement is not to be understood from the averments of the indictment, it is not thought by counsel for the state that the representations as to the property owned by Stewart are material; at least, there is no such contention, and there seems no room to doubt such a conclusion. The indorsement was essential to a personal obligation of Stewart on the note, and, if the note was taken without such liability, it could not well be said that such representations defrauded Lawson, for his position would be the same whether the representations were true or false. But it is said by appellee that the indictment is good, even though the representations as to Stewart's property be disregarded, and in this we think appellee is right. One of the false representations charged is that the notes were good, and of the aggregate value of $800. If such representation were false, and known to be so, and property was obtained because of it, which, for this purpose, we assume, because it...