Commonwealth v. Miller

Citations

• 31 Pa. Super. 309
• 1906 Pa. Super. LEXIS 212

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — School directors — Corrupt interest in contracts — Indictment.</p> <p>Where an indictment against a school director charges him substantially in the words of section 66 of the act of March 31, 1860 with being interested in a contract for furnishing'school supplies to the district of which he is director, and no application is made for a bill of particulars, the defendant is not entitled to have the indictment quashed because it was not sufficiently specific as to the kind of supplies and material furnished, or the price or prices agreed upon.</p> <p>After a motion to quash an indictment has been overruled, the jury sworn, and the testimony taken, it is too late to move to quash the indictment because it charged several separate and distinct misdemeanors in one count.</p> <p>An indictment charging a school director with being interested in a contract for furnishing materials and supplies will not be quashed because it charged that certain materials and supplies were furnished to one schoolhouse of the district, and that certain other materials and supplies were furnished to another schoolhouse of the district. In such a case the gravamen of the offense charged is not the mere furnishing of the materials and supplies, but the being unlawfully interested in the contract under which they were furnished.</p> <p>The sixty-sixth section of the act of March 31, 1860 as applied to school directors is not restricted to cases where the director of the purchasing school district is at the same time a member, officer or agent of some other corporation which has contracted to furnish the supplies or materials, but includes a case where the contract is between a person in his sole right, or as a member of a firm, officer or agent of a corporation, and the school district of which he is a director.</p> <p>A corrupt or dishonest intent, or unfairness in the price charged for the supplies and materials, is not an essential element of the offense. Therefore, an alleg