State v. Scoggin

• Decision Date: 23 December 1907
• Citation: 106 S.W. 969
• Parties: STATE v. SCOGGIN.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

106 S.W. 969

STATE v. SCOGGIN.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

December 23, 1907.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Conway County; Hugh Basham, Judge.

J. H. Scoggin was indicted for embezzlement. A demurrer to the indictment was sustained, and the state appeals. Reversed.

The appellee was indicted in the Conway circuit court for embezzlement. Omitting the formal parts, the indictment is as follows: "The said J. H. Scoggin, in the county and state aforesaid, on the first day of August, 1906, then and there being over the age of sixteen years, and being the agent of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, an incorporated company, and having then and there in his custody and possession as such agent, as aforesaid, eighteen hundred dollars, gold, silver and paper money, lawful money of the United States of America, and the property of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company aforesaid, did unlawfully, fraudulently and feloniously make away with and embezzle and convert to his own use said sum of eighteen hundred dollars, as aforesaid, without the consent of the aforesaid Missouri Pacific Railway Company, against the peace and dignity of the state of Arkansas. And the grand jury aforesaid, in the name and by the authority aforesaid, further accuses the said J. H. Scoggin of the crime of embezzlement, committed as follows, to wit: The said J. H. Scoggin, in the county and state aforesaid, on the first day of August, 1906, then and there being over the age of sixteen years, and being the agent of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, an incorporated company, and having then and there in his possession and custody as such agent, as aforesaid, eighteen hundred dollars, gold, silver and paper money, lawful money of the United States of America, and the property of the state of Arkansas." The defendant demurred, his specific grounds of objection being set out as follows: "(1) Said indictment is not direct and certain as to the circumstances of the offense charged, in this, that the facts constituting defendant an agent of the companies mentioned are not set out, nor is it stated what kind of agent defendant was, nor what his duties as such agent were, nor at what place he was agent. (2) No facts are alleged by which it is made to appear that defendant was the agent of said railway companies, or either of them. (3) Said indictment does not state that as such agent it was defendant's duty to receive or hold the money alleged to have been embezzled. (4) It is not alleged in said indictment that the money charged to have been embezzled by defendant, or any part of it, came to defendant's hands, or under his care or custody, by virtue of his agency. (5) Said indictment does not state facts sufficient to constitute the offense." The demurrer was sustained, and the state appeals.

Wm. F. Kirby, Atty. Gen., and Dan. Taylor, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State. Sellers & Sellers, for appellee.

WOOD, J. (after stating the facts as above).

Appellee was indicted under section 1837 of Kirby's Digest, which is as follows: "If any clerk, apprentice, servant, employé, agent or attorney of any private person, or of any co-partnership, except clerks, apprentices, servants and employés within the age of sixteen years, or any officer, clerk, servant, employé, agent or attorney of any incorporated company, or any person employed in any such capacity, shall embezzle, or convert to his own use, or shall take, make away with or secrete, with intent to embezzle or...