People v. Barnett

CRAIL, P. J.

This is an appeal from a conviction of William D. Barnett on each of two counts of an information which charged grand theft.

It is the contention of the appellant that the theory upon which the prosecution proceeded and the only one which its evidence tended at all to support was that the money of the complaining witness, Mary Hill, was obtained by false pretenses ; that the only evidence of the false pretenses was the testimony of Mrs. Hill, and that there was no corroboration such as is required under section 1110 of the Penal Code.

It is the contention of the attorney-general, however, that the defendant was convicted of the crime of larceny by trick and device, a crime for the conviction of which no corroboration was necessary.

The law of this state is (1) that where a person parts with the possession of his money to the defendant with the intent that it shall be used by the defendant for a specific and limited purpose, and at the time the defendant receives

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the possession of said money he intends to convert said money to his own use, he is guilty of larceny by trick and device; and that (2) when a person parts with both the title and possession of his money to the defendant and said party has been induced by the defendant through false pretenses to so part with both his title and possession, then he is guilty of obtaining money by false pretenses. (26 A. L. R. 381 (n), and California eases cited on page 382.)

In the case of

People

v.

Curran,

24 Cal. App. (2d) 673 [75 Pac. (2d) 1090], this court said, “The distinction between the offenses of larceny and of obtaining money by false pretenses depends upon the intention with which the owner of the property parted with it to the person taking it. ‘In larceny, the owner of the thing has no intention to part with his property therein to the person taking it, although he may intend to part with the possession. In false pretenses the owner does intend to part with his property in the money or chattel, but it is obtained from him by fraud. ’