Commonwealth v. Shoener

Citations

• 30 Pa. Super. 321
• 1906 Pa. Super. LEXIS 66

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Public officers — Demand for payment of public funds— Statute of limitations — Act of March 31, 1860, P. L. 382.</p> <p>A public officer cannot be convicted of failing to pay over public moneys on proper demand as provided by the Act of March 31, 1860, sec. 65, P. L. 382, until an actual and not a constructive demand has been made by the proper officer or person authorized to demand and receive the money. Until such demand is made no offense has been committed. The statute of limitations began to run, therefore, only from the date of the demand.</p> <p>Criminal law — Pleading—Former acquittal — Public officers.</p> <p>On a demurrer to a plea in bar the court will consider the whole record, and give judgment for the party who, on the whole, appears to he entitled thereto. If the plea is former acquittal, the question whether the former acquittal was for the same offense depends upon the record pleaded, and not on the arguments or inferences deduced therefrom.</p> <p>The true test to ascertain whether the plea autrefois acquit be a good bar, is whether the evidence necessary to support the second indictment would have been sufficient to secure a legal conviction on'the first.</p> <p>Where a public officer has been convicted of failing to pay over public moneys after demand made upon him, and the ^conviction has been reversed by the Supreme Court on the ground that no proper demand was or could have been made upon the defendant pending the determination in a civil proceeding of his right to hold the money, such a reversal cannot be pleaded as a former acquittal to a subsequent indictment for failing to pay over moneys, where it appears that the civil proceedings were concluded against the defendant, and that a demand was made thereafter by the proper officer.</p>