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106 Ala. 109

Headley v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1894

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1894-11-15

Tried before the Hon. N. D. Benson. The appellant was tried and convicted under the following indictment: “The grand jury of said county charge that, before the finding of this indictment, William Hoadley did falsely pretend to William M. Wilson, with intent to defraud, that he owned the south-east quarter of the north-west quarter of section twelve, township twenty-three, range thirteen in said county and State, and by means of such false pretense obtained from the said…

Relies on Williams v. State · Mack v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1894-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1920

4 state decisions

101894190019101920decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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PER CURIAM.

¶1— The indictment is in the form prescribed by the Code, and must be deemed sufficient, whatever may have been the essential constituents, at common law, of an indictment for false pretenses. The statute is general, that “where an intent to injure or defraud is necessary to constitute the offense, it issufficient to allege an intent to injure or defraud generally, without naming the particular person, corporation, or government intended to be injured or defrauded. ” — Code, § 4380. The form of indictment prescribed corresponds to the statute. There is a general allegation of che intent to defraud, not designating who was intended to be defrauded, Under this general averment, it was competent for the State to prove the particular person or persons, who were intended to be defrauded. — Williams v. State, 61 Ala. 33; Mack v. State, 63 Ala. 138. There wrns not a hurtful variance between the allegations of the indictment and the evidence. The statute, (Code, § 4381), authorizes the ownership of property in reference to which an offense is committed to be alleged to be in any one of the several partners or owners to whom it may belong. Though it was alleged the false pretense was made to William M. Wilson, it was competent to prove that it was made to him as a member of the partnership of William M. Wilson & Brother, to obtain the moneys of the partnership, and that thereby the moneys of the partnership were obtained. There is no ground on which the general instruction of acquittal could have been requested, other than the supposed variance in the ownership of the moneys, or in the person to whom the pretense was made, and who was intended to be defrauded. The variance did not exist in a legal sense, and the instruction was properly refused.

¶2The judgment must be affirmed.

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