Barton v. People

Citations

• 135 Ill. 405
• 10 L.R.A. 302

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal law—obtaining goods under false pretenses — giving cheek without funds—of the indictment. An indictment for obtaining goods under false pretenses, charged, in substance, that the defendant, by falsely representing to one P., the agent of the H. C. Staver Manufacturing Company, that he owned $175 in money, then on deposit with the Security Loan and Savings Bank, which would be pai d by that bank on his order, induced said P. to accept an order drawn by him on that . bank, in the words and figures following, namely: “Chicago, Ill., Feb. 4, 1889.—The Security Loan and Savings Bank, 127 LaSalle street, pay . to the order of H. C. Staver Implement Co., $175, (one hundred and seventy-five dollars.)—W. H. B.,”—in payment for $175 for one buggy , and two robes then negotiated to be sold to the defendant by said ' H. C. Staver Manufacturing Company, in the hands of said P. for the purpose of being delivered on the defendant’s making payment therefor, and to deliver said buggy and two robes to said defendant, as having been thereby paid for by the said defendant, when in truth and-in fact defendant did not then and there have $175, or any other sum, on deposit with said bank, which would be paid by that bank on his order for the payment of $175, as defendant well knew: Held, upon motion to quash, that the count showed the statutory offense with sufficient certainty.</p> <p>2. The fact that it was alleged, unnecessarily, in such count, that defendant represented that he would issue an order different from that set out, and that instead of doing as thus represented he issued the order in the count described, did not render the count subject to the objection that it charged the issue of two orders, while only one was shown to have nothing on deposit for its payment.</p> <p>3. In such case, the gist of the offense charged against the defendant was hi's obtaining the possession of goods by falsely representing that he had money in the bank wherewith to pay an order