Case ID: fla_67/html/0385-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

James W. Mooneyham, Plaintiff in Error, v. The State of Florida, Defendant in Error.
    
    Opinion Filed April 28, 1914.
    The evidence as to ownership of property pledged examined and found insufficient to support a conviction of obtaining money under false pretenses.
    Writ of Error to Circuit Court for Jackson County; D. J. Jones, Judge.
    Judgment reversed.
    
      W. B. Farley, for Plaintiff in Error;
    
      T. F. West, Attorney General, and G. 0-. Andrews, Assistant, for the State.
   Per Curiam

James W. Mooneyham was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses and sentenced to one year in the State prison.

The pretense consisted of a statement that he owned a yoke of steers, which he offered as security for credit.

His ownership of the steers at the time the statement was made was attested not only by the accused himself, but by a former owner of the steers who testified as to délivery, and by other non-interested persons. The State’s case depends almost wholly upon one witness who claimed to have owned the steers at that time, and he admits that negotiations for the sale were made with Mooneyham, and the language there used was such as-may have left Mooneyham under the impression that a sale had been made. So strong was this impression that the witness felt impelled to visit Mooneyham later to say that the trade was off. In the meantime the steers had been pledged as security.

As to the actual delivery of the steers at the time of the negotiation for the sale, the evidence points only one way, and that supports the defendant’s case.

Upon this evidence we cannot sustain the verdict, and the judgment is reversed.

Shackleford, C. J., and Taylor, Cockrell. Hocker and Whitfield, J. J., concur.