Burnett v. State
Burnett v. State
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
It is first contended that the plaintiff in error received manifest wrong by reason of the refusal of the trial court to continue the cause when moved for trial by the prosecutor. The application for continuance was made upon the ground of the illness of plaintiff in error. This objection cannot be considered, for it does not appear that the entire proceedings at the trial are before us, so that we can review them under the act of 1894 (Gen. Stat., p. 1154), and the ruling of the court thereon is not otherwise reviewable.
In the brief of the prosecutor, the indictment is said to have been drawn under section 296 of the Crimes act. Gen. Stat., p. 1104. That section, however, seems to cover the embezzlement only of personal property other than money. But the amendment to the Crimes act, approved March 10th, 1893 (Gen. Stat, p. 1100), supports the indictment, for it provides, among other things, that if any agent or servant entrusted with the care of any money shall fraudulently take and convert the same, or any part thereof, to his own use, he shall be deemed guilty of misdemeanor.
The portion of the charge excepted to is obviously erroneous. A refusal to pay over money of another, entrusted to one as agent or servant, is doubtless evidence of a fraudulent conversion or fraudulent intent to convert, but it will not justify the statement that it establishes in law a fraudulent conversion. Fitzgerald v. State, 21 Vroom 475. This error, I think, was not cured by the subsequent explanation to which I have alluded, for the jury were still left to find that the refusal, if they believed it, established in law a fraudulent conversion, and it was useless to tell the jury that they must be satisfiéd that the refusal was with the intent to convert the money to his own use, if the refusal did in law make a fraudulent conversion.
Upon this ground I think this judgment must be reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JOHN M. BURNETT, IN ERROR v. THE STATE, IN ERROR
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published