Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-01-23
HIGH COURT SUSTAINS
JUDGE SHACKELFORD
Court of Appeals Afirms Ring
of Madison Judge In "Cold
Check Cases"

The ruling of Judge w. r. Shack
eito.d in the Madison Circuit court in
what were known as the Lexington
co;l check" cases was affirmed by
the Court of Appeals at FrAnkfort IN
an opinion handed down this week.
1t will be recalled that two couples,
McCalls and Hattons, came over from
Lexington in a car one day, bought
lot Of goods at various stores in Ri
mOnd and gave in payment spun .H..
checks. They came very near "getljp.
away with it," but were caught before
they could get out of town. The goods
were recovered and prosecutions i'm
mcdiately instituted. One Of the men,
Coy Hatton, pleaded guilty and is now
serving three years in the penitentiary
at Frankfort for his part in the pro-
cecdingS.
The cases Of the other were dismiss
ed when they were brought to trial on
the ground that the indictments were
faulty. The indictments, as drawn,
charged obtaining goods under false
pretenscs, but the defense claimed
that there was no ground for such an
Indictment as it was claimed that the
prisoners did not claim to have money
in the banks to meet the checks they
gave, and that no merchant of whom
they had bought goods, had asked if
they had funds to make the checks
good. Discussing the law that was
passed to prevent the giving of ''cold
checks, and It's features, t
says in concluding its length /:
A check represents money zen
a person gives a check on baHk the
payec Of it has the right to believe
that the maker has sufficient funds
in the bank TO pay it and that it will
be paid in money on presentation.
The olfcnSc described in the statute
is committed when the maker has not
sufficient funds in the bank to pay the
check at the time he gives it and this
ofTenSc can only be satisfied by paying
or offering to pay in money the a
mount Of the check within the twenty
days allowed by the statute. 1t was
not the intention of the statute that
thc maker should be allowed after
practicing fraud in giving it to re-
lcvc himself of the penalty by de-
livcring to the payee property OF other
thing Of value except money to the
amount of the check
1t is suggested that as one sbiect
Of the statute was to protect persons
who had been dcfrauded by accepting
worthless checks, any settlement made
between The maker and the payee of
the check will obitcrate the offense;
but to this we cannot agree. As be-
tween the parties the payment by the
maker Of less than the amount of the
check in money or the delivery of
property Of less or as much N.'t IS
the amount Of the check ma be a
satisfactory settlement of the trans
action; and in many cases we have no
doubt the payce would be glad to ac-
voTt lnoney or property of less value
than the amount of the check in sat
isfaction Of it. But the Common
wealth has an interest in the case
and its interest cannot be compro-
missed Or settled in any way except in
the manner provided in the statute.
| The of'ense is complete when the
worthless check is given with II :
/ to dcfraud and the statute has
| ed out the only way in which tt. OF
Tense can be blOtted out. Nothing
short of this will acquit the maker
no matter what he and the payee
have agreed to. Their agreement to
settle the matter in any other way
than as provided in the statute will
not be allowed t. stay the prosecu-
tion or prevent the enforcement of
the penalty.
1t follows from what we have
said that the indictment, although it
contained surplus matter, sufficiently
charged the offense described in sec
ton 1213a and the evidence was suffi-
cient to sustain prosecution under
this section.
There could not however have been
a judgment in this case because the
trial was commenced before the ex-
piration Of the twenty days from the
time the maker of the check had no
tice Of its dishonor. In cases like
i this final trial should be postponed
until after the time allowed to make
the check good, although on
may be commenced or an nt'ctment
found before that time has expired.
I