Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

65 N.C. 313

State v. . Bell

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided January 5, 1871

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1871-01-05

The defendant was indicted and tried at the last Term of the Superior Court of Wake County, before his Honor, Judge Watts, for stealing a valise, the property of H. Hoffa, whose given name was to the jurors unknown. On the trial it was proved on behalf of the State by Dr. G. W. Blacknall and others that the owner of the valise stolen by the defendant was H. Hoffa.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The name of the owner of property stolen is not a material part of the offense charged in the indictment, and it is only required to identify the transaction, so that the defendant by proper plea may protect himself against another prosecution for the same offense.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Collins v. People

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1871-01-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently January 2004

10 state decisions

3018711880189019001910192019301940195019601970198019902000decided

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 →

Dick, J.

¶1 The indictment charges, that the valise stolen was the property of “ H. Hoffa whose given name is to the jurors unknown.” The witness proved that the property stolen belonged to H. Hoffa, and gave no information as to the “ given” or Christian name of the owner. The proof, therefore, corresponded with the allegation, and there was no variance — and the jury properly convicted the defendant.

¶2 The motion in arrest of judgment was properly overruled. The technical precision required in the old forms of indictment are not now strictly observed in criminal proceedings, and judgment will not be arrested where sufficient matter appears to enable the Court to proceed to judgment. Eev. Code, ch. 35, sec. 14.

¶3 The name of the owner of property stolen is not a material part of the offence charged in the indictment, and it is only required to identify the transaction, so that the defendant by proper plea may protect himself against another prosecution for the same offence. The indictment may charge that the owner is to the jurors unknown. In all cases the charge must be proved as laid. The owner may have a name by reputation, and if it is proved that he is as well known by that name as any other, a charge in the indictment in that name will be sufficient. State v. Angel, 7 Ire. 27. State v. Godet, Id. 210. Stroud's case, 2 Moody C. C. 270. Rex v. Norton, Russ and Ryan. 510.

¶4*315 If a person usually signs Ms name with only the initials of his Christian name, and he is thus generally known and designated, he may he properly indicted by such name. 7 Bac. Ab. 8. State v. Stephen, 11 Georgia 225.

¶5 In this case H. Hoffa is known by no other name, and the charge in the indictment is sufficient to identify the transaction and accomplish the purposes of the law.

¶6 There is no error and the judgment must be affirmed.

¶7 Let this be certified.

¶8 Per Curiam. Judgment affirmed.

/65/nc/313 · .json · Public domain