Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

55 Ala. 85

Colly v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1876

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1876-12-15

FROM tbe Circuit Court of Butler. Tried before tbe Hon. JOHN K. Henry.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently June 1925

9 state decisions

30187618801890190019101920decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

STONE, J. —

¶1Tbe charge, or criminal accusation, on which the appellant was tried and convicted in this cause, is insufficient. It charges no more than the making of a promise, to be performed in the future, which the defendant failed to observe and keep. This falls short of the requirements of section 3714 of the Eevised Code. “A false pretense is a false representation, which may be in mere oral words, or it may be in writing, or by signs, or the like, relating to some existing or past fact; and, to be indictable otherwise than as an attempt, it must actually mislead, and so produce such a particular cheat as falls within the words of the statute. A promise, not meant to be kept, is not a false pretense.”— Bish. Stat. Crimes, § 451. See, also, 2 Bish. Cr. Law, sections 400 et seq. The demurrer interposed to the accusation should have been sustained; and the motion in arrest of judgm'ent should also have been sustained.

¶2Under the facts of this case, the defendant can not be convicted ; and we think a remandment of the cause could only result in an increase of expenses, without profit to any one. The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed, and the prisoner ordered to be discharged from this prosecution.

/55/ala/85 · .json · Public domain