Tillman v. State

• Decision Date: 08 December 1971
• Docket Number: No. 215,215
• Parties: Homer A. TILLMAN v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 570

13 Md.App. 570

284 A.2d 259

Homer A. TILLMAN v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 215.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 8, 1971.

Certiorari Denied Feb. 15, 1972.

Argued before MURPHY, C. J., and MOYLAN, and GILBERT, JJ.

MURPHY, Chief Judge.

Appellant was convicted in a court trial of making a false statement in violation of Maryland Code, Article 27, Section 148, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. On appeal, he contends that the false statement allegedly made by him did not come within the provisions of the statute, and, consequently, his conviction must be reversed.

The pertinent facts are these: On December 16, 1970 appellant registered as a guest at the Sheraton-Silver Spring Hotel in Silver Spring, Maryland. He stayed three nights and charged meals against his hotel account. The total bill came to $148.09. Mr. Lee O'Donnell, resident manager of the Hotel, testified that appellant registered under the name of 'Craine,' and also for a friend who would be sharing the same room and for whose accommodations appellant indicated he would pay; that at the time appellant registered, he (O'Donnell) asked appellant if he intended to use a credit card or cash when he checked out, to which appellant, exhibiting a Shell credit card, replied 'Do you accept Shell?'; and that appellant then put the number of the credit card on the registration form to which he (O'Donnell) added the word 'Shall' to identify the credit card being used. When questioned as to the purpose of the hotel registration card, O'Donnell testified that it was required by law and was used for identification.

Ralph Dennison, assistant manager of the Hotel, testified that appellant's bill had not been paid.

Detective Sergeant Thomas Skaife of the Montgomery County Police Department, testified that he arrested appellant at the Sheraton Inn in Silver Spring on December 19, 1970 after appellant had finished his evening meal in the hotel dining room; that just prior to the arrest he observed the waiter hand appellant what appeared to be a receipt or bill, on the back of which appellant wrote something. He then arrested the appellant.

Janelle Craine testified that the credit card used by appellant belonged to her father; that it has been given to her for her personal use, but had been stolen sometime during the first week of November in the Arlington, Virginia area.

Appellant contends on appeal that his conviction cannot be sustained because a hotel guest registration card is not a 'financial statement' within the meaning of Maryland Code, Article 27, Section 148. ¹

Maryland Code, Article 27, Section 148, provides in pertinent part:

'Any person, who shall knowingly make or cause to be made, either directly or indirectly, or through any agency whatsoever, any false statement in writing, with intent that it shall be relied upon, respecting the financial condition, or means or ability to pay, of himself, or any other person, firm or corporation * * * for the purpose of procuring in any form whatsoever, * * * the extension of a credit, * * *.

'Shall be guilty of a misdemeanor * * *.' (Emphasis added.)

Article 27, Section 148 is subheaded 'False Financial Statements-Making or Using.' Appellant relies upon such shbheading to establish that a 'false statement' under the Section has reference to a 'financial Statement' concerning one's assets and liabilities. Nothing in the body of the statute, however, gives any indication that the Legislature intended any such restrictive application. The subheading affixed to Section 148, upon which appellant relies, is merely the codifier's conception of the substance of the Section; it is not part of the statute. In plain terms, the statute proscribes the making of 'any false statement in...