State v. Johnson
State v. Johnson
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff in error was convicted upon an indictment which, as amended by leave of the trial court, charged that on the 17th day of July, in the year 1914, he, the said Elwood Johnson, did receive and have from one Charles Harvey, $2,547.54 of the moneys, goods and chattels and other valuable things of one Agnes Crosbie before then feloniously, unlawfully and fraudu-/ lently obtained, taken and converierl by said Harvey, he, the said Elwood Johnson, then and there well knowing said moneys to have been so obtained, taken and converted by said Harvey.
The indictment was intended to charge a violation of section 1(56 of the Crimes act, as amended May 14th, 1906 (Pamph. L., p. 431); and the first ground upon which we are asked to set aside the conviction is that the offence set out in the indictment is not within the purview of the sec
We conclude, therefore, that the receipt of money which has been unlawfully or fraudulently obtained from another person, the receiver thereof knowing it to have been so obtained, is within the purview of the statute upon which the ]>resent indictment is founded.
It is next contended on behalf of the plaintiff in error that if it be considered that money is a valuable tiling, within the meaning of the statute, the indictment is nevertheless defective, because it fails to show the kind of money; the argument being that the indictment should not only state the amount received by the defendant, but should. specify that it was good and lawful money of the United States. Rut the answer to this contention is that hy section 50 of our Criminal Procedure act (Comp. Stat., p. 1836), it is provided “In every indictment in which it shall be necessary to make any averment as to any money or any note
It is next contended that there was no legal evidence before the court that the 'money of Agnes Crosbie had been unlawfully and fraudulently obtained by Charles Harvey, or that the defendant, when he received it, knew that it had been so obtained and converted. The assertion that there was no evidence of Harvey’s misconduct is based upon the theory that this could only be proved by the production of the record of his conviction of that offence. But why counsel thinks this'to be the case he does not make plain to us by his argument, and, manifestly, it is without substance. As to Johnson’s knowledge of the misappropriation of these moneys by Harvey we find in the record sent up ample evidence to justify the jury in resolving that factor against him.
Lastly it is argued that tire court erred in failing to instruct the jury that unless the circumstances of the case were such as to satisfy a man of ordinary intelligence and caution that these moneys had been embezzled by Harvey, the defendant should be acquitted. It is enough to say, in disposing of this contention, that no request to so charge was submitted to the trial court, and that no cxceptioir was taken to the instruction to the jury as delivered. Other errors were assigned by the defendant, but as they have not been referred to either in the brief or in the oral argument submitted-in his behalf, we have considered them as having been abandoned, and consequently have not examined them.
On the whole case we conclude there should be an affirmance.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.