People v. Cain

SHAW, J.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of grand larceny upon an information wherein it was charged that he did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously take, steal, lead and drive away a certain young cow, to wit, a heifer then and there of the age of about two and one-half years, and then and there the personal property of one T. D. Cheney. Defendant appeals from the judgment and an order of the court denying his motion for a new trial, and in support thereof presents his bill of exceptions.

The subject of the larceny charged was a cow which belonged to defendant. When it was about one year old defendant placed it in a pasture owned by one Blades, agreeing to pay Blades a certain sum per month for its pasturage. A year later, April, 1906, Blades sold and transferred possession of the pasture to T. D. Cheney, who, through Blades, informed defendant, that if the animal remained there he (Cheney) would charge defendant one dollar per month for its pasturage. In September following the defendant called upon Cheney to pay the pasturage bill and get the cow, but owing to a dispute as to the amount due for pasturage and defendant’s refusal to pay the sum claimed by Cheney as due himself and Blades, he did not get her. In November, 1906, the cow disappeared from the pasture, and upon defendant being informed of her disappearance, he stated that he would hold Blades and Cheney responsible for her value. Several months later a cow claimed and shown by the prosecution to be the one in dispute was found in a neighboring pasture, where, it was charged, she had been placed by defendant, and from which she was taken by Blades and Cheney to the latter’s pasture. Defendant caused the arrest of both

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Blades and Cheney for taking this cow, claiming that she was not the one in dispute, but another which defendant owne'd. The charge against Blades and Cheney was dismissed upon the hearing; whereupon defendant was charged with the larceny of the animal as above stated.

1. It is insisted that the court erred in instructing the jury, in substance, that the law recognized a general and special ownership in personal property, and that it might be stolen from one whose ownership was either general or special; that one who had actual possession of cattle received by him for pasture for compensation has a lien thereon for such compensation and is a special owner thereof and may be deemed the owner thereof within the law of larceny, and an information may properly allege him to be the owner thereof; and, in connection therewith, giving the following instruction: “From these principles it follows that a person having the general ownership of personal property may be guilty of stealing his own property from another who has a special ownership therein; and if a man willfully and feloniously takes his own personal property away from, the possession of a special owner thereof, with intent to charge such special owner therewith when such special owner has the right as against him to retain it for some benefit to himself, he is guilty of larceny of such property.”