Johnson v. People

Citations

• 113 Ill. 99
• 1885 Ill. LEXIS 670

Syllabus

<p>1. Indictment—for statutory offences—requisites. An indictment for a mere statutory offence must be framed upon the statute, and this fact must distinctly appear upon the face of the indictment itself. That it may so appear, the pleader must either charge the offence in the language of the statute, or specifically set forth the facts constituting the same.</p> <p>2. Where the statute creating a new offence does not describe the act or acts constituting such offence, the pleader is bound to set them forth specifically.</p> <p>3. Same—of the rule in respect to larceny by bailee, v/nder the statute. Section 170 of the Criminal Code, making a conversion of property by a person to whom it has been entrusted, a larceny, is not intended to apply to any case which is a larceny at common law; and all cases falling within it are mere statutory larcenies, and are subject to the rule of pleading applicable to statutory offences.</p> <p>4. Larceny—at common law—in what cases. At the common law there are three cases in which a conviction for larceny may be sustained when the apparent possession is in the accused: First, where the accused has the mere custody of the property, as contradistinguished from possession, as in the case of servants and the like; second, where he obtains the custody and apparent possession by means of fraud, or with the present purpose to steal the property; and third, where one having acquired possession by a valid contract of bailment, which is afterward terminated by some tortious act of the bailee, or otherwise, whereby the possession reverts to the owner, leaving the custody, merely, with the former, and he feloniously converts the property to his own use.</p> <p>5. Same—larceny at common law defined. Larceny at the common law is defined to be “the felonious taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another. ” Every larceny at common law includes a trespass to personal property, and no one lawfully in the possession of goods ca