Wood v. State

• Decision Date: 01 February 1905
• Citation: Wood v. State, 84 S.W. 1058, 47 Tex. Cr. R. 543 (Tex. Crim. App. 1905)
• Parties: WOOD v. STATE.
• Court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

84 S.W. 1058

WOOD v.STATE.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.

February 1, 1905.

Appeal from District Court, Kimble County; Clarence Martin, Judge.

George F. Wood was convicted of unlawfully disposing of mortgaged property, and he appeals.Reversed.

W. C. Linden, for appellant.Howard Martin, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.

BROOKS, J.

Appellant was convicted of unlawfully disposing of mortgaged property, and two years in the penitentiary assessed as his punishment.

Appellant filed a motion in arrest of judgment, alleging that the indictment upon which the conviction is predicated charged no offense, and because it fails to allege that the mortgage therein set out was unpaid at the time of the alleged sale of the property.The indictment, after setting forth the mortgage upon which the prosecution was predicated, contains but one count, which is as follows: "And thereafter, to wit, on or about the 24th day of July, A.D. 1902, in Kimble county, Texas, the said George F. Wood did unlawfully and fraudulently, with intent to defraud the said T. C. Taylor, sell, barter, and convey the said property, to wit, 43 head of stock horses, a portion of said horses being branded thus: X—, on right thigh, and the remainder of said horses being branded thus: X, on left thigh.The said horses are known as the Josh Deats horses, and are the horses bought of the said Josh Deats by the said George F. Wood.The said horses were so sold, bartered, and conveyed by the said George F. Wood to persons to said grand jurors unknown after diligent inquiry, except one of said horses, which said horse was by said George F. Wood so sold, bartered, and conveyed as aforesaid to one Alfred Miller.The said horses were so sold, bartered, and conveyed without the consent of the said T. C. Taylor, who was then and there the legal holder and owner of said mortgage and said deed of trust, and the said mortgage and said deed of trust was, at the time of the sale and disposition of the property as aforesaid by the said George F. Wood, a valid, subsisting, unsatisfied lien on and upon the said property, as the said George F. Wood well knew."

Article 950,Pen. Code 1895, under which this prosecution was instituted, provides: "If any person has given or shall hereafter give any mortgage, deed of trust or other lien in writing upon any personal or movable property or growing crop, or farm produce, and shall remove the same or any part thereof out of the state, or shall sell or...