Court Opinion

ID: 9715737
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:13:16.183954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:37.689774
License: Public Domain

CIRILLO, Judge:
Appellee, Thomas J. Wetmore, was convicted in a jury trial of theft by deception1 and theft by unlawful disposition.2 After argument, the trial court granted appellee’s motion in arrest of judgment and ordered him discharged. The Commonwealth has appealed that order to this court.
In 1874, an 18 year old man committed suicide. Appellee, who was then chief of police in the community, investigated the suicide and recovered a shotgun which was the suicide weapon. The following day, appellee met with the suicide’s father who requested that appellee destroy or otherwise dispose of the shotgun. Appellee agreed to do so. Appellee later wrote a letter to the father, indicating that he had disposed of the gun. Approximately one year later, appellee took the shotgun to a gun shop where he disposed of it for no compensation.
*373The Commonwealth argues that the trial court erred in concluding that the shotgun had been abandoned by the father and therefore could not be the subject of a larceny. We disagree and affirm the order of the lower court arresting judgment on both charges and discharging appellee.
It is well settled law that abandoned property cannot be the subject of larceny. Commonwealth v. Meinhart, 173 Pa.Super. 495, 98 A.2d 392 (1953). Abandoned property is defined as that:
... to which an owner has voluntarily relinquished all right, title, claim and possession with the intention of terminating his ownership, but without vesting it in any other person and with the intention of not reclaiming further possession or resuming ownership, possession or enjoyment.
1 Am.Jur.2d § 1; Ballantine’s Law Dictionary, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co., Third Edition, p. 1 (1969).
Abandonment involves an intention to abandon, together with an act or omission to act by which such intention is apparently carried into effect. In determining whether one has abandoned his property or rights, the intention is the first and paramount object of inquiry, for there can be no abandonment without the intention to abandon. Black’s Law Dictionary, West Publishing Co., Fifth Edition, p. 2 (1979). The intent to abandon is to be determined from all of the facts and circumstances of the case. Russell v. Stratton, 201 Pa. 277, 50 A. 975 (1902). The question of whether a particular act amounts to an abandonment is generally one of intention. Eagan v. Nagle, 378 Pa. 206, 106 A.2d 222 (1954). When deciding whether an object has been abandoned, we must consider the nature of the property, the acts and conduct of the parties in relation thereto and the other surrounding circumstances. Gilberton Contracting Co. v. Hook, 255 F.Supp. 687 (E.D.Pa.1966).
In the instant case, an abandonment occurred when the father requested appellee to destroy or otherwise dispose of the gun so it would never be used again for any purpose. *374As noted above, appellee obtained the gun when he was investigating the suicide. When appellee met with the father, the father told him to keep and dispose of the gun, rather than return it. Though one could argue that no delivery was made and, therefore, nonphysical act, we conclude that the omission to act, i.e., the father’s failure to recover the gun from the appellee, together with an intent to relinquish all claim to the property, both presently and in the future, was sufficient because the effect was the same. We would not expect the parties to go through the unnecessary motion of the physical transfer of the gun from appellee to the father and then its return to appellee, just to satisfy the requirement that a physical act take place. The moment the father told appellee to keep and dispose of the gun, he gave up his rights of possession and ownership. He did not intend to reserve any interest in the gun and, therefore, he clearly intended to abandon it.
Even if we assume that the gun was not abandoned property and, therefore, was a proper subject of larceny, we still must reach the same result because the Commonwealth failed to prove essential elements of the crimes charged.
Theft by deception is defined in Section 3922 of the Crimes Code as follows: “A person is guilty of theft if he intentionally obtains or withholds property of another by deception.” It is clear from the record that appellee obtained possession of the gun in the ordinary course of investigating the suicide. The alleged promise to dispose of the gun was made after appellee had the gun in his possession. Therefore, there is no evidence that the appellee “obtained” the gun by deception.
Furthermore, appellee did not “withhold” the gun by deception. “Withhold” is not defined in the Crimes Code but has been defined as, “to retain in one’s possession that which belongs to or is claimed by another.” Ballantine’s Law Dictionary, Lawyer’s Co-operative Publishing Co., Third Edition, p. 1373 (1969). Possession of the gun had been voluntarily relinquished by the father and he made no effort to reclaim possession. We conclude, therefore, that *375appellee was improperly convicted of theft by deception and judgment was correctly arrested on that charge.
Theft by failure to make required disposition has four elements:
1) the obtaining of property of another;
2) subject to an agreement or known legal obligation upon the recipient to make specified payments or other disposition thereof;
3) intentional dealing with the property obtained as the defendant’s own; and
4) failure of the defendant to make the required disposition of the property.
(emphasis added). Commonwealth v. Shapiro, 275 Pa.Super. 28, 418 A.2d 594 (1980); Commonwealth v. Austin, 258 Pa.Super. 461, 393 A.2d 36 (1978); Commonwealth v. Crafton, 240 Pa.Super. 12, 367 A.2d 1092 (1976).
A review of the evidence reveals that the first, third and fourth elements are present. As to the second element, we find that there was no clear legal duty owed by appellee to dispose of the gun in a particular manner. Appellee had promised to destroy the gun, as a favor, to the father, and he failed to do it. Though appellee’s conduct may be considered immoral, it was not illegal and, therefore, does not fall within the purview of Section 3927 of the Crimes Code. We agree with the lower court’s analysis of why the Commonwealth must fail in its attempt to bring this “agreement” within the confines of this statute:
The prosecution must fail because in our view the statute was not intended by the legislature to cover this “borderline” case that falls between the cracks only because in the most narrow sense its operative facts can be squeezed to fit the bare words of the statute.
Bare words are not enough. Involved is the community sense of what is criminal and it is our intuition that society did not intend to punish what in the last analysis has to be viewed as the breach only of a moral obligation.
*376Consequently, we conclude that, under either theory presented above, appellee was improperly convicted of the crimes charged and the lower court appropriately arrested judgment and discharged the appellee.
Order affirmed.
WIEAND, J., files a dissenting opinion.

. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3922.

. 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3927.