Swindling — Law Dictionary

Ballentine's Law Dictionary

James A. Ballentine · 1916

The word has no legal or technical meaning. See 104 Ala. 160, 53 Am. St. Rep. 27, 16 South. 68.

Black's Law Dictionary

Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Cheating and defrauding grossly with deliberate artifice. Wyatt v. Ayres, 2 Port. (Ala.) 157; Forrest v. Hanson, 9 Fed. Cas. 456; Thorpe v. State, 40 Tex. Cr. R. 346, 50 S. W. 383; Chase v. Whitlock, 3 Hill (N. Y.) 140; Stevenson v. Hayden, 2 Mass. 408. By the statute, "swindling" is defined to be the acquisition of personal or movable property, money, or instrument of writing conveying or securing a valuable right, by means of some false or deceitful pretense or device, or fraudulent representation, with intent to appropriate the same to the use of the party so acquiring, or of destroying or impairing the rights of the party justly entitled to the same. Pen. Code Tex. art. 790; May v. State, 15 Tex. App. 436.

Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence

Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879

Is defined to be cheating and defrauding grossly, with deliberate artifice. Wyatt v. Ayres, 2 Port. 157. Swindling is a vague and indefinite term; it does not import a crime. Hall v. Rogers, 2 Blackf. 429. The words "swindler," "swindling," &c., have been very lately adopted into the English language, and are as yet of indefinite meaning. They do not, with certainty, import an indictable offence. These terms were imported into this country from England, and into that from Germany. The word swindler means no more than cheat: cheat has always been holden not to be actionable, and swindler means no more. Stevenson v. Hayden, 2 Mass. 406. s. p. Chase v. Whitlock, 3 Hill (N. Y.), 139. To call a merchant a swindler is actionable, when said of him in respect to his business, and with intent to charge obtaining goods under false pretences. Herr v. Bamberger.