Lidtke v. State

Citations

• 27 Tex. Ct. App. 500
• 11 S.W. 629
• 1889 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 77

Syllabus

<p>1. False Packing and Selling Falsely Packed Merchandise.— Article 470 of the Penal Code denounces as guilty of a criminal offense any person who with intent to defraud shall put into any vessel or package containing merchandise or other commodity usually sold by weight, any article whatever of less value than the merchandise with which said vessel or package is apparently filled, or any person who, with intent to defraud, shall sell or barter, or give in payment, or expose to sale, or ship for exportation, any such. vessel or package of merchandise or other commodity with any such article of inferior value concealed therein. Article 471 of the Penal Code denounces as guilty of a criminal offense any person who shall, with intent to deceive and defraud, conceal within any vessel or package containing merchandise or other commodity, any merchandise or commodity of a quality inferior to that with which such vessel or package is apparently filled, or any substance of less value, etc. The distinction between the two offenses, construed in connection with each other, is that, whereas the latter offense may be committed by concealing in the vessel or package either like merchandise of inferior quality or any substance of less value, the former offense can he committed only by putting into the vessel or package a substance different in character and of less value than that •with which the vessel or package is apparently filled; and whereas, It is an offense under article 470 to fraudulently offer for sale the falsely packed vessel or package, the offering for sale under the latter article is not an offense. The indictment in this case is formulated under article 470, and charges the sale of four bales of cotton falsely packed with cotton of inferior quality to that with which they were appar ently filled. Held, that the indictment charges no offense against the law.</p> <p>'2. Same—Evidence.—If the words “any article whatever,” as used in article 470, could, when said ar