Case ID: sw_204/html/0430-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PRENDERGAST, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

SACKS v. STATE.
    (No. 5036.)
    (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
    June 19, 1918.)
    1. Weights and Measures <®=>5 — “Coed oe Wood.”
    A “cord of wood” is a measurement of wood containing-128 cubic feet, otherwise expressed as a pile of wood 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet wide, which would make that measurement.
    2. Weights and Measures <®=>6 — Coed oe Wood — Statute.
    The law (Pen. Code 1911, art. 990) does not require that, in order to ascertain that a quantity of wood is a cord, it shall be piled 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet wide, but any other measurement or pile that contains a full cord would be sufficient.
    3. Weights and Measures <S=»12 — Cord oe Wood — Evidence.
    In a prosecution under Pen. Code 1911, art. 990, for using a false measure for measuring cordwood, evidence held not to sustain a conviction.
    Appeal from Harris County Court, at Law; Walter E. Monteith, Judge.
    Ed Sacks was convicted of using false measures for measuring cordwood, and he appeals.
    Reversed, and cause remanded.
    Bradley & Fogle, of Houston, for appellant. E. B. Hendricks, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
   PRENDERGAST, J.

Appellant was convicted for using a false measure for measuring cordwood under article 990, P. C.

The complaining witness, Mr. Brown, testified that he ordered from appellant’s wood-yard in Houston, over the phone, two cords of firewood, and later in the same day, when the bill therefore was presented, he paid it; that when he examined the wood later he thought it was less than two cords, and so informed appellant. A few days later he stacked the wood, and found that it was one-half cord short. This measurement was still later confirmed by Mr. Lawrence, the sealer of weights and measures for Houston.

A cord of wood is “a measurement of wood containing 128 cubic feet.” 9 Oyc. 977. It is otherwise expressed as a pile of wood 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet wide, which would make, of course, 128 cubic feet.

The uncontradicted proof shows that the appellant had wagon boxes for measuring a cord of wood the dimensions of which made 164 cubic feet. It was demonstrated, as shown by the testimony, that a cord of wood of the dimensions stated, that is, 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet wide, when sawed up into shorter lengths and thrown loosely into the boxes used by appellant, contained fully a cord of wood thus sawed up and thrown in. In other words, the uncontradicted testimony showed that the wagon boxes of appellant which he used on all occasions and on this occasion contained a full cord of wood thrown in loosely as this was. The law does not require that in order to ascertain that a. quantity of wood is a cord it shall be piled 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet wide, but any other measurement or pile that contains a full cord would be all that was necessary, and would be sufficient. So that, as we understand it, the uncontradicted testimony shows that appellant did not use a false measurement in selling this wood, and the evidence is wholly insufficient to sustain the ^conviction. It is, of course, unnecessary to discuss whether or not in this particular instance appellant might have been guilty of some other offense than that charged. No other question need be discussed.

The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.