Summers v. State
Decision Date | 30 October 1940 |
Docket Number | 28354. |
Citation | 11 S.E.2d 409,63 Ga.App. 445 |
Parties | SUMMERS v. STATE. |
Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
James W. Smith, of Albany, and Fort, Fort & Fort, of Americus for plaintiff in error.
Fred W. Lagerquist, Jr., Walter Jones, and Rosser Malone, all of Albany, and Carl E. Crow, Sol. Gen., of Camilla, for defendant in error.
O. T Summers was charged with cheating and swindling, for that he did "with intent to defraud one R. B. Saunders, by deceitful means and artful practices, falsely represent to R B. Saunders by and through the agent of R. B. Saunders, W. A. Fowler, that he the said accused had a contract with the government through the rehabilitation agent in Fort Gaines, Georgia, for 20 tons of shelled Spanish peanuts that the accused must deliver immediately, and that he the said accused under his contract with the government was receiving a price that would enable him to pay R. B Saunders $80 per ton for the quality of peanuts that Saunders owned, *** that said representations were false and fraudulent, knowingly so and made wilfully and for the purpose and with the intent to deceive and defraud said R. B. Saunders, and the said R. B. Saunders not knowing said representations were false and fraudulent but believing them to be true and relying upon them as true had his agent, W. A. Fowler, deliver to said O. T. Summers approximately 8200 pounds of Spanish peanuts in the shell from East Albany Warehouse, trade name of R. B. Saunders of the property of R. B. Saunders and of the value of $3300, thereby cheating and defrauding said R. B. Saunders out of the sum of $3300 of the value of $3300 to the injury, loss, and damage to R. B. Saunders of $3300 the truth and fact being that the said O. T. Summers had no such contract with the government and rehabilitation agent at Fort Gaines, Georgia, all of the representation being false and fraudulent and with the intent to deceive and cheat and defraud said R. B. Saunders and did cheat and defraud him in the manner and sense above set out."
The defendant's demurrers, general and special, were overruled. He excepted pendente lite. He filed a plea in abatement on the ground that "the indictment returned by the grand jury was not supported by any evidence adduced before the grand jury and for that reason the indictment was void." The solicitor filed a traverse to the plea and the issue thus formed was submitted to a jury who, by direction of the court, found in favor of the traverse. To this ruling the defendant excepted. At the trial of the case on its merits the defendant was convicted, and he excepts to the overruling of his motion for new trial as amended.
1. An indictment drawn under Code, § 26-7410, sets forth an offense thereunder as against demurrer where it shows that the owner of property of value was induced by deceitful means and artful practices to
part with the possession thereof, and was thereby defrauded and cheated. Davis v. State, 27 Ga.App. 195, 107 S.E. 883; Morse v. State, 9 Ga.App. 424(2), 71 S.E. 699. The essential elements of the offense of cheating and swindling are set forth in Phillips v. State, 40 Ga.App. 141, 142, 149 S.E. 157, and Diamond v. State, 52 Ga.App. 184, 182 S.E. 813, and where every essential ingredient of the offense charged is set forth with sufficient clearness to enable the defendant to prepare his defense and the jury clearly to understand the nature of the offense, and the indictment is exact enough to protect the defendant from a second jeopardy, the indictment is not demurrable. Williams v. State, 2 Ga.App. 629(2), 58 S.E. 1072; Hawkins v. State, 58 Ga.App. 386, 198 S.E. 551 and cit.; McGinty v. State, 59 Ga.App. 675, 677, 2 S.E.2d 134. The indictment was sufficient under this rule, and the court did not err in overruling the demurrers for any reason assigned.
2. The defendant contends that "an indictment must be based on some legal evidence, and an indictment of an offense which is made up of several distinct elements must be based on evidence supporting each of the necessary elements." The defendant contends in his brief that there was no legal evidence before the grand jury that the defendant Summers did not have such a contract as was referred to in the indictment, and hence a representation that he had such a contract was not proved to be untrue. That
In Washington v. State, 63 Ala. 189, it is said ' The motion was denied, and in the course of the opinion, Judge Stone, speaking for the court, said: ...
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Felker v. State
...173 S.E.2d 470 (1970), which cites Meriwether v. State, 63 Ga.App. 667, 11 S.E.2d 816 (1940), which, in turn, cites Summers v. State, 63 Ga.App. 445(3), 11 S.E.2d 409 (1940). In Summers, the Court of Appeals held that, "where ... it appears that a competent witness or witnesses were sworn a......
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