Case ID: ga-app_30/html/0666-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Bloodworth, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

14730.
    Thompson v. The State.
    Decided July 25, 1923.
    Accusation of enticing farm laborer; from city court of Cairo — Judge Rigsby. May 28, 1923.
    Lloyd Thompson was convicted upon an accusation based on section 125 of the Penal Code (1910), and charging that by offering higher wages and in other ways he persuaded George Montgomery, a farm laborer of B. H. Pope, agent for B. H. Pope estate, to leave the said employer during the term of service. The motion for a new trial contained, besides the usual general grounds, the ground that the venue was not proved, and that the evidence showed that if the alleged crime was committed, it was committed in Thomas county, and not in Grady county as charged. B. H. Pope testified, that he was manager of the Pope estate during the year 1921, and that during this time G. G. Montgomery worked for him as a half cropper; that Montgomery left him about the 20th of October and went to work for the defendant, and was at that time, indebted to him (Pope) for advances, and this indebtedness was never paid; that some time before Montgomery left, the defendant asked him (Pope) how much Montgomery owed him, and was told the amount, and the defendant said he would consider taking it up for him; that the next day after Montgomery left, the witness found him on the defendant’s farm in Thomas county; that at the time Montgomery left he had harvested all of his crops except two acres of cane, which was left standing in the field; and that Montgomery told the witness that the defendant would pay him more for his work than the witness was paying him. Alfred Johnson testified, that he lived near the Pope place in Grady county, and that near midnight in October, 1921, he saw at the home of G. G. Montgomery about three wagons and teams, which he was told belonged to Lloyd Thompson, loaded with the belongings of Montgomery, which were carried off that night. G. G. Montgomery testified, that he moved away from Pope’s farm because he had to do it to make enough to support himself and his wife and nine children; that at the time he left he had gathered all his crops except about two acres of cane and had turned over to Mr. Pope everything he had made, and Mr. Pope then'refused to give him something for his family to live upon; that Mr. Thompson never came to see him about working for him, and the first time it was ever mentioned was when he (the witness) went to see Mr. Thompson at Mr. Thompson’s home and asked for a job; that Mr. Thompson then said he would pay him (the witness) 75 cents a cord for cutting wood, but did not persuade him to leave Mr. Pope; that he used Mr. Thompson’s teams, with Mr. Thompson’s permission, in moving his things from the Pope farm, but that Mr. Thompson was not at home when the witness left with the teams; that the only time that the witness had mentioned moving to Mr. Thompson before he left Mr. Pope was when he went to see Mr. Thompson at Mr. Thompson’s home; that besides offering to pay the witness 75 cents for cutting wood, Mr. Thompson agreed to see Mr. Nicholson and somebody else and get them to give the witness more time on some debts that he owed them. The defendant, in his statement at the trial, said that Mr. Pope never asked him about paying Montgomery’s account until after Montgomery went to work for him (the defendant), and that he did not know that Montgomery owed Pope anything until Montgomery had moved. His statement was in accord with the testimony of Montgomery.
   Bloodworth, J.

The record in this case contains no evidence to support the verdict, and the judge erred in overruling the motion for a new trial.

Judgment reversed.

Broyles, O. J., and Luke, J., oonour.

W. E. Duclcworth, for plaintiff in error.

Ira Carlisle, solicitor pro tern., contra.