People v. Ellison

WOOD, J.

An indictment was filed charging appellant, Lawrence F. Ellison, his wife, Mae C. Ellison, and Peggy L. Nutting with grand theft. Eighteen separate counts were contained in the indictment. At a jury trial all of the defendants were convicted on all counts. Defendants Mae C. Ellison and Peggy L. Nutting were granted probation and

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defendant Lawrence F. Ellison prosecutes this appeal from the judgment of conviction.

Under the name of 'Southern Piano Company defendants were engaged in the business of retailing household furniture and appliances on conditional contracts of sale. Later the business was conducted under the name of Sales Acceptance Corporation, successor to Southern Piano Companjn When articles of merchandise were sold to purchasers upon conditional contracts of sale defendants followed the practice of attaching schedules to the contracts and assigning them as collateral security for the loan of money to defendants by banks, finance companies and individuals. In assigning the contracts defendants warranted that they were executed in connection with the sale of merchandise which had been delivered to the purchasers. Defendants caused false and forged contracts to be prepared evidencing ostensibly the legitimate sales of household furniture and appliances to purchasers, and these were hypothecated with the various lenders upon the false representations, among others, that they were genuine. In some of the transactions defendants issued several contracts on the same piece of merchandise bearing the same serial number, each contract purporting to be an original, and sold them to different parties. Appellant concedes that the evidence is sufficient to sustain the verdicts on all counts except count XIII. On this count defendants were charged with the theft of six hundred dollars on September 26, 1936, from one Riddell. The record discloses that a check was given to defendants by Riddell on September 22, 1936, in the sum of six hundred dollars under conditions similar to those surrounding charges contained in the other counts. The evidence is amply sufficient to sustain the convictions on all counts.

Appellant argues that ‘1 simple transactions were made the basis of several counts in the indictment, thus constituting double and triple jeopardy”. We find no merit in this contention. On July 10, 1936, a schedule of contracts containing false representations was presented to one Slaff. Influenced by these false representations Slaff paid to defendants the sum of $1,000 on July 10th, the sum of $1204.27 on July 14th and the sum of $553.75 on July 20th. The false representations were made on only one occasion, but they provided the inducement for the payment by Slaff of three