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11 Tex. Ct. App. 536

Ervin v. State

Court of Appeals of Texas

Decided July 1, 1882

Court of Appeals of Texas · decided 1882-07-01

Tried below before the Hon. Edwin Hobby. The indictment charged that the appellant, on November 15, 1879, “did fraudulently represent to one J. A. Handley that he, the said Ervin, owned and possessed thirteen hundred pounds of seed cotton, and that if the said Handley would let him have thirty-five dollars worth of merchandise out of the store of him the said Handley that he the said Ervin would transfer and deliver to him the said Handley the said thirteen hundred pounds of…

Decided 1882-07-01

Hurt, J.

¶1Appellant was convicted of swindling. There was a motion in .arrest, based upon the insufficiency of the indictment.

¶2The indictment in this case tested by the well settled rules of criminal pleading, and the decisions of our Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, is fatally defective. We refer to the decisions made upon the law in force prior to the passage of what is known as the Common Sense Bill.” And though the form prescribed in that bill for an indictment for this offense is quite plain and simple, this indictment will not bear the test under the provision of that form. It is required under that form to allege that defendant did obtain the goods, etc., by means of the false representations. Neither this allegation nor one of similar import is found in this indictment.

¶3The judgment is reversed and the cause dismissed.

¶4Reversed and dismissed.

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