Case Name: A. F. WESTMORELAND v. STATE of Mississippi
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1971-01-25
Citations: 246 So. 2d 487
Docket Number: No. 46118
Parties: A. F. WESTMORELAND v. STATE of Mississippi.
Judges: GILLESPIE, P. J., and PATTERSON, INZER and ROBERTSON, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 246
Pages: 487–498

Head Matter:
A. F. WESTMORELAND v. STATE of Mississippi.
No. 46118.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Jan. 25, 1971.
Rehearing Denied March 22, 1971.
Roy O. Parker, Tupelo, for appellant.
A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., by Guy N. Rogers, Asst. Atty. Gen., and P. Roger Googe, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellee.

Opinion:
SMITH, Justice:
A. F. Westmoreland was convicted of the crime of false pretenses in the Circuit Court of Lee County and sentenced to serve a term of 7 years in the penitentiary, of which 21/2 years were suspended on good behavior. He appeals from that conviction and sentence.
The indictment on which Westmoreland was tried, omitting the formal part, was as follows:
[B]eing then and there ^engaged in the business of selling farm machinery and equipment, feloniously and fraudulently represented to the Peoples Bank and Trust Company, Tupelo, Mississippi, a corporation, that a certain negotiable evidence of debt, to-wit: a conditional sales contract #39227, dated October 19, 1968, and purportedly signed by one D. J. "Doc" Kitchens, for the purchase of one Self-Propelled New Holland Combine, serial #341792, for the amount of $8950 was a valid contract, representing evidence of a bonafide purchase and a sale agreement between the said D. J. "Doc" Kitchens and the said A. F. Westmoreland, the said A. F. Westmoreland then and there well knowing the said conditional sales contract to be a false contract and not representing evidence of a valid purchase and sale transaction between the said A. F. Westmoreland and the said D. J. "Doc" Kitchens, and by virtue of this false representation and false pretense, that the said A. F. Westmoreland did, with intent to cheat and defraud the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, sell the said conditional sales contract to the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, and did thereby fraudulently obtain from the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, Eight Thousand One Hundred and no/100 Dollars ($8100), good and lawful money of the United States, in violation of Section 2150 of the Mississippi Code contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi.
Neither the sufficiency nor the validity of the indictment was challenged in the trial court by demurrer, motion to quash or otherwise. Moreover, the motion for a new trial, made by Westmoreland following his conviction, did not assign, as a ground therefor, any defect or deficiency in the indictment.
It is now argued, however, that appellant's motion for a directed verdict of not guilty should have been sustained because: (1) The indictment failed to state the ownership of the $8100 obtained from the bank, and (2) the proof was insufficient to show a violation of Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2150 (1956) as alleged in the indictment.
In support of the first of these contentions (that the indictment failed to show ownership of the money), appellant relies on Langford v. State, 239 Miss. 483, 123 So.2d 614 (1960), and the authorities therein cited.
In Langford, the appellant had been indicted for embezzling two cows, and the indictment omitted to state to whom the cows belonged. The Court, in concluding to reverse, said:
The appellant failed to demur to this indictment but he objected to the testimony as to ownership of the property, moved for a directed verdict and requested the Court to peremptorily instruct the jury to find him not guilty. There was also a motion for a new trial, due to the fact that the indictment in this case was void because it did not set out who owned the property alleged to be embezzled. (Id. at 486, 123 So.2d at 616.)
An indictment, of course, constitutes the "pleading" in a criminal case. Its office is to apprise the defendant of the charge against him in fair and intelligible language (1) in order that he may be able to prepare his defense, and (2) the charge must be laid with sufficient particularity of detail that it may form the basis of a plea of former jeopardy in any subsequent proceedings. There is, however, a trend away from the unnecessary redundancy and prolixity of former times.
The requirements of specificity with respect to allegation of ownership demand neither a deraignment of title nor a statement in "direct terms" showing perfect title where ownership of the money or property obtained reasonably appears from the whole indictment and there is nothing in the indictment to support or suggest any other reasonable conclusion.
As stated by this Court in Neece v. State, 210 So.2d 657, 659 (Miss.1968), in quoting with approval language used in State v. Dodenhoff, 88 Miss. 277, 40 So. 641 (1906):
Preserving to a defendant the right to be duly informed of the nature and cause of the accusation made against him, there ought not to be, in addition to this, insistence upon forms which are purely technical and surplusage. There are too many reversals by far on technical grounds. They ought to be had, in those cases where the defendant is shown by the testimony to be manifestly guilty, only upon objection having real and substantial merit. 88 Miss. at 288, 40 So. at 643.
In the case here, after identifying beyond question the false writing sold to the bank by appellant and by means of which, the indictment charges, he fraudulently obtained from the bank $8100, in money, the indictment continues:
[T]hat the said A. F. Westmoreland did, with intent to cheat and defraud the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, sell the said conditional sales contract to the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, and did thereby fraudulently obtain from the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, Eight Thousand One Hundred and no/100 Dollars ($8100), good and lawful money of the United States, in violation of Section 2150 of the Mississippi Code. (Emphasis added.).
In Cohen v. State, 101 Ga.App. 23, 27-28, 112 S.E.2d 672, 676 (1960), the Court of Appeals of Georgia, speaking to a contention that an indictment insufficiently set out ownership of funds obtained by false pretenses, said:
The indictment in this case alleges that 'Clarence Orr paid the sum of $2,-100' for the worthless stock, 'whereby the said Clarence Orr was cheated and defrauded out of the sum of $2,100.' This is a sufficient allegation as to the ownership of the money under the authority of Scott v. State, 53 Ga.App. 61, 66, 185 S.E. 131.
In State v. Timmerman, 88 Utah 481, 487, 488, 55 P.2d 1320, 1323, concurring opinion, 56 P.2d 1354 (1936), the Utah Supreme Court in discussing the question, said:
Appellant, however, argued that the information does not state facts sufficient to constitute a public offense. We undertake to dispose of this question, as the same question may arise upon a new trial. The argument is based upon the contention that, in order to state the offense of obtaining money under false pretenses, the information must affirmatively and specifically allege the ownership of the property, unless there is some legal excuse stated in the indictment or information for omitting the allegation. There is a division of authority upon that question. We need cite only an illustrative case on each side of the controverted question. New Jersey holds squarely in the case of State v. Samaha, 92 N.J.Law 125, 104 A. 305, 306, that: " 'Actual ownership' of the money or goods by the person upon whom the cheat is practiced is not essential. It is sufficient if he had lawful possession and dominion of the same." New Mexico and some other jurisdictions hold that an indictment or information for obtaining money by false pretenses is fatally defective unless the ownership of the property is directly and distinctly alleged. State v. Faggard, 25 N.M. 76, 177 P. 748. In the absence of statute the weight of authority, numerically, is with the rule announced by the case last above cited.
In a number of jurisdictions it is held that it is sufficient if it appears from the indictment or information to whom the property belonged. In the case of People v. Skidmore, 123 Cal. 267, 55 P. 984, the situation was presented of one fraudulently obtaining a signature to a promissory note. It was there held that the facts showed the ownership of the note as fully as though there was a direct allegation in the pleading to that effect. In the instant case it is made to appear from the allegations of the information, although not directly alleged, who the owner of the check was. It is made to appear that the check was the property of the Ostler Candy Company with such certainty that no other implication could possibly arise. We think the information sufficiently alleges ownership, and being attacked on no other ground, the trial court did not err in admitting evidence over objection that the information did not state facts sufficient to constitute the offense charged.
In Midgley v. State, 29 Okl.Cr. 108, 232 P. 967 (1925), the Criminal Court of Appeals of Oklahoma, in rejecting a contention that an information charging false pretenses was insufficient because it failed "to allege the ownership" (of the property obtained), said:
Several assignments of error are presented for the reversal of this case, it being first contended that the amended information on which plaintiff in error was tried is insufficient, in that it fails to allege unequivocally the ownership of the property charged to have been obtained by the false pretenses set out as the basis of the amended information. Numerous authorities are cited to the effect that it is necessary to state to whom the property belonged. The amended information does not in direct terms aver the ownership of the property. This court in the case of Fuller v. Ter., 2 Okl.Cr. 86, 99 P. 1098, upheld an information in practically the same language as the information in this case.
It has been held in other jurisdictions that it is not a fatal defect to fail to allege the ownership in direct terms, if the indictment or information as a whole clearly discloses that fact. State v. Knowlton, 11 Wash. 512, 39 P. 966; Griggs v. United States, 9 Cir., 158 F. 572, 85 C.C.A. 596; State v. Balliet, 63 Kan. 707, 66 P. 1005; People v. Skidmore, 123 Cal. 267, 55 P. 984; State v. Boon, 49 N.C. 463; McClintock v. State, 98 Neb. 158, 152 N.W. 378; People v. Monroe, 64 App.Div. 130, 71 N.Y.S. 803. See, also, in this connection Douglas v. State, 15 Okl.Cr. 648, 179 P. 947; Bennett v. State, [21] Okl.Cr. [27,] 204 P. 462.
In Ireton v. State, 29 Okl.Cr. 266, 272. 233 P. 771, 773 (1925) the Court said in discussing a similar question:
It appears to us that an allegation that a false pretense is made to a person, and, believing and relying thereon, and by reason thereof, the person to whom the representation is made parts with money is a sufficient allegation as to the ownership. The mere fact that the legal ownership of the money was in some other person who might ultimately have to bear the loss would not be available to the person accused. In the instant case it certainly made no difference to the plaintiff in error whether the money paid over to him on the forged note and mortgage was the property of the First State Bank of Ardmore or of some other person. The transaction is described with sufficient certainty to identify the act, and, if the allegation as to the person injured be erroneous, it is not material, nor does it result in any miscarriage of justice.
We think the better reasoned view is that the allegations of an indictment for false pretenses, with respect to ownership of the money or property fraudulently obtained, may be sufficient without the use of direct words, where such ownership appears from a reasonable construction of the indictment as a whole.
After careful consideration of the indictment in the present case we have concluded that in charging that Westmoreland,
[W]ith intent to cheat and defraud the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, sell the said conditional sales contract to the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, and did thereby fraudulently obtain from the said Peoples Bank and Trust Company, Eight Thousand One Hundred and no/100 Dollars ($8100), good and lawful money of the United States, in violation of Section 2150 of the Mississippi Code. (Emphasis added).
sufficiently charged ownership by the Peoples Bank and Trust Company of the money obtained.
The second of appellant's contentions involving the indictment is that the proof failed to show a violation of Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2150 (1956), referred to in the indictment, and for that reason he was entitled to a directed verdict of not guilty.
Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2150 (1956) actually is a continuation of and dependent upon, section 2149, which precedes it. Section 2149 defines the crime of false pretenses, and section 2150 merely adds another grade of the same offense for which it provides a more severe penalty when it is committed with the additional elements there enumerated. These sections are as follows:
Section 2149.
Every person who, with intent to cheat or defraud another, shall designedly, by color of any false token or writing, or by another false pretense, obtain the signature of any person to any written instrument, or obtain from any person any money, personal property, or valuable thing, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding three years, or in the county jail not exceeding one year, and by fine not exceeding three times the value of the money, property, or thing obtained.
Section 2150.
If the false token by which any money, personal property, or valuable thing shall be obtained, as specified in the last section, be a promissory note, or other negotiable evidence of debt, purporting to have been issued by or under the authority of any person, banking company, or moneyed corporation not in existence, the person convicted of such cheat shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding seven years.
In 41 Am.Jur.2d Indictments and Infor-mations section 88 (1968) it is stated:
Although there must be such specification of language as to bring the charge within the particular portion of the statute on which it is based, it has been held not necessary, where the offense is otherwise sufficiently particularized, to specify the exact section of the statute which is alleged to have been violated. In some jurisdictions, there are statutes providing that the statutory provision alleged to have been violated shall .be set forth, and it has been held that a statute providing that it shall be sufficient to charge the defendant by using the name and article number of the offense committed is void, but citation of the wrong statute in an indictment or information will be treated as mere sur-plusage when objection thereto is first raised on appeal unless it appears that defendant was misled or prejudiced. (Emphasis added).
In 42 C.J.S. Indictments and Informa-tions § 138 (1944), the rule is stated thus:
As a general rule, a misrecital of the statute does not avoid the indictment where the facts stated constitute an offense under any statute, especially where the objection is raised after plea of guilty. The misrecital may be rejected as surplusage, at least where the conclusion is generally as "contrary to the stat ute in such case made and provided." However, the indictment may be invalidated by a material misrecital of the statute, where reference to the statute must be considered for the purpose of supplying an insufficient description of the offense, and the effect of the erroneous citation is to mislead or fail to inform accused fully and clearly of the charge he has to meet.
In Harper v. United States, 27 F.2d 77, 79 (8th Cir. 1928), the Court said:
The statement that the facts violate a certain section of the statute is nothing more than the pleader's conclusion, which may or may not be correct, and neither adds nor detracts from the allegations.
In White v. State, 169 Miss. 332, 338, 153 So. 387, 388 (1934), in rejecting a contention that an indictment was defective because it contained an incorrect citation of a statute alleged to have been violated, this Court said:
It is also contended that the indictment is defective because it concludes with the words, "contrary to section 987, Mississippi Code of 1930, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Mississippi." This reference to section 987, Code 1930, is manifestly erroneous, as that section merely provides the penalty that may be imposed upon a conviction for murder. However, this reference to the statute was mere surplusage in the indictment, and the appellant could not have been prejudiced by this erroneous reference thereto. Smith v. State, 58 Miss. 867.
In the case now before us the attention of the trial court was not drawn to this matter in any way. The question was not raised either by demurrer, motion to quash, or in appellant's motion for a new trial made following his conviction. As in other pleadings, the allegations of fact control as against legal conclusions of the pleader. We have concluded that the indictment in this case sufficiently charged facts which constituted the crime of false pretenses as defined by Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2149 (1956). The proof overwhelmingly supported the charge against appellant, as laid in the indictment. However, it was error to impose sentence under the provisions of Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2150 (1956), since the facts charged in the indictment and shown by the proof do not show that the commission of the offense was accompanied by the circumstances necessary to bring it within that section.
Other matters assigned as error have been examined and considered and are without merit.
The conviction of appellant of the crime of false pretenses (as defined in Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2149 [1956]) is affirmed, the sentence imposed under section 2150 is set aside, and the case is remanded for imposition of sentence as provided by section 2149.
Conviction of appellant of the crime of false pretenses (as defined in Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated section 2149 [1956]) affirmed, the sentence imposed under section 2150 set aside, and the case remanded for imposition of sentence as provided by section 2149.
GILLESPIE, P. J., and PATTERSON, INZER and ROBERTSON, JJ., concur.