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3 Ala. App. 90

Martin v. State

Alabama Court of Appeals

Decided February 1, 1912

Alabama Court of Appeals · decided 1912-02-01

Heard before Hon. A. L. Bankin. Coot Martin was convicted of selling mortgaged property, and he appeals. The motion to quash should have been granted. Acts 1907, p. 237; Sec. 7423, Code 1907. The mortgage was improperly admitted in evidence. Sec. 7423, and 4004, Code 1907. Counsel discuss other assignments of error, but without citation of authority.

Relies on Askew Bros. v. Steiner & Lobman · Olmstead v. State · Wilson v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1912-02-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently March 1944

9 state decisions

401912192019301940decided

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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PELHAM, J.

¶1The affidavit charged the defendant with selling mortgaged property, and the writ of arrest or warrant issued on the affidavit was directed “to any lawful officer of said county” (Covington). The defendant moved the court to quash the warrant because *92not addressed in the manner prescribed by law. If the warrant is defective in the manner complained of, the objection would not be a ground for quashing a sufficient affidavit or complaint. “It could be argued with equal force that an indictment in regular form should be quashed because the capias, under which the indicted party was arrested, was defective.”Wilson v State, 99 Ala. 194, 13 South. 427. The affidavit charges an offense under section 7342 of the Code of 1907, and is in the form provided. Form 99, Code 1907, p. 677.

¶2The mortgage signed by the defendant was properly admitted in evidence: proof of the execution by the attesting witness Hardman being sufficient. Code § 4004;—Askew v. Skinner, 76 Ala. 218; Jones v. Slate, 113 Ala. 95, 21 South. 229; Houston v. State, 114 Ala. 15, 21 South. 813.

¶3The rulings of the court on the evidence are free of error prejudicial to the defendant. It was not improper to allow the witness Lon Williams, the general manager of the company holding the mortgage on the property sold by the defendant, to' testify that he went to the defendant’s house to get the property a few days after the mortgage was due and could not find it. Showing the possession of the mule by Preacher Jones at Heath was permissible, as showing the defendant had parted with possession. What the witness Barton did with the mule after- he purchased it from, the defendant connected the possession with Preacher Jones; but even if the disposition made of it by him was irrelevant, there was no injury to the defendant in the statement. Two witnesses testified to an admission by the defendant of his having disposed of the property that was not denied or contradicted.

¶4There was sufficient evidence to establish the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt-, and in the *93absence of conflicting testimony the court properly gave the affirmative charge for the state at the request of the solicitor in writing.—Jones v. State, 96 Ala. 56, South. 192; Johnson v. State, 91 Ala. 70, 9 South. 71; Olmstead v. State, 89 Ala. 16, 7 South. 775.

¶5The record is free from reversible error, and the judgment of the court below is affirmed.

¶6Affirmed.

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