People v. Beck

Decided July 1, 1863

California Supreme Court · decided 1863-07-01

Appeal from the Court of Sessions of Placer County. Indictment for robbery. The language of the indictment as to the taking of the property is, “ did feloniously, forcibly, violently, unlawfully, and with force and arms, and by force, threats, and intimidation take from another, to wit: from one John Hornsyer, a leather bag and purse,” etc. Defendant demurred because the indictment failed to show that the property was taken from the person of another. The demurrer was overruled and defendant subsequently tried and convicted, and he now appeals.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1863-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently May 1931

3 state decisions

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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Field, C. J. delivered the opinion of the Court

¶1Cope, J. concurring.

¶2The indictment in this case is fatally defective in the statement of the facts constituting the offense charged. Robbery is defined by the statute to be “ the felonious and violent taking of money, goods, or other valuable thing from the person of another by force or intimidation.” The indictment does not allege the taking in the present case from the person of another, but only from another person, which is quite a different thing. The demurrer should have been sustained.

¶3Judgment reversed and cause remanded.