People v. Raplee

TYLER, P. J.

Appellant was charged by information with a violation of section 532 of the Penal Code in having obtained by false pretenses the sum of $2,225 from the prosecuting witness, the alleged false pretenses consisting in the misrepresentations that he was the owner of certain shares of stock in a mining company; that the mine was a good, prosperous working one, the shares of which were worth one dollar each. He was tried and convicted and this is an appeal from the judgment and order denying a new trial and a motion in arrest of judgment. Various grounds of error are assigned which it is claimed justify the setting aside of the judgment of conviction.

It is first contended that the information is fatally defective in substance as it fails to allege a public offense. In this connection it is claimed that it omits to allege the ownership of the money obtained from the prosecuting witness; that it fails to show any causal connection between the alleged false pretenses and their effect on the prosecuting witness and that it likewise fails to show any causal connection between the alleged false pretenses and any purpose or object of defendant in making them. We see no merit in this contention.

The information in substance charges defendant on or about the twenty-third day of April, 1923', at the county of Alameda, California, with then and there devising and intending by unlawful ways and means, and by false and fraudulent pretenses and representations to obtain and get into his custody and possession the personal property of one Leonora E. Faulkner with intent "to cheat and then and thereby cheat and defraud her by stating that he was the owner of 14,000 shares in a certain unincorporated com

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mon-law mining company organized and existing under the laws of the state of Nevada, and that the said shares were worth one dollar per share; that it was a good, prosperous working mine, whereas, in truth and in fact, each and all of said pretenses and representations so made by defendant were false and fraudulent in the following particulars: That defendant was not the owner of such shares nor were they worth one dollar a share, but, on the contrary, they were without any value whatsoever, and that the mining company was not a good and prosperous one and that each and all of said pretenses and representations so made by defendant were made for the purpose of inducing the prosecuting witness to pay over to defendant the sum of $2,225. That defendant knew the pretenses and representations so made by him were untrue and fraudulent.