An Act approved March 10; 1959 (Ga. L. 1959, p. 141; Code Ann. § 5-9914) declares: “Any person, *576 either on his own account or for others, who shall buy . . . cattle . .' . or other [agricultural] products or chattels, and shall fail or refuse to pay therefor or shall make way with or dispose of the same before he shall have paid therefor unless credit shall be expressly extended therefor, shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than one year nor more than five years.” Otis C. Garmon was indicted in Worth County for committing the second offense created by that Act. The indictment alleges that he did on October 10, 1961, on his own account, buy from J. M. Sutton, doing business as Sutton Livestock Company, sixty head of cattle of the total value of $6,545.80 and did make way with and dispose of them before paying therefor, credit not having been expressly extended therefor. He demurred to the indictment on the ground that the sale price of the cattle' — an essential element of the offense charged against him — was not alleged therein. And, by demurrer, he also attacked the validity of such Act on the grounds that it offends Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XXI of the Constitution of Georgia (Code Ann. § 2-121), which prohibits imprisonment for debt; Art. I, Sec. I, Par. Ill of Georgia’s Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-103) which declares that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, except by due process of law; and the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States {Code § 1-815) which declares that no State shall deprive any citizen of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. The demurrer alleges that the Act of 1959 is violative of the enumerated constitutional provisions because it provides for imprisonment for debt and for criminal enforcement of a civil obligation untouched by the public interest and for felony punishment of an act requiring no fraudulent intent, malice or scienter of any kind, because it is an arbitrary and excessive exercise of the police powers of the State, and because it is discriminatory against the defendant. His demurrers were overruled and there is a proper exception to that judgment. He was convicted of the offense charged and the jury fixed punishment for him at not less than one nor more than two years in the penitentiary. He moved for a new trial on the usual general grounds, later amended his motion by adding *577 other grounds, and excepted to a judgment overruling his amended motion. Held:
1. There is clearly no merit in the contention that the indictment is defective because it fails to allege the purchase-price of the cattle which the accused bought. It alleges the value of the cattle when sold to him in Worth County on October 10, 1961; that they were purchased by him from J. M. Sutton doing business as Sutton Livestock Company; and that he did make way with and dispose of them before he paid for them, credit not having been expressly extended therefor. An indictment is sufficient when it alleges the nature of the offense plainly enough to be understood by the jury.
Thomas v. State,
2. The Act of 1959
(Code Ann.
§ 5-9914) creates two separate and distinct penal offenses, namely, (1) failure or refusal of a purchaser to pay for any of the agricultural products mentioned or referred to in the Act when purchased at a cash sale, and (2) for the purchaser to make way with or dispose of any of such agricultural products before paying for same when credit therefor has not been expressly extended.
Playinger v. State,
3. The evidence shows without dispute that the accused on October 10, 1961, through Dr. Thomas B. Sutton, purchased 60 head of cattle from J. M. Sutton, doing business as Sutton Livestock Company for the sum or price of $6,545.80; that the accused paid for them by two checks which he sent to Dr. Thomas B. Sutton, one for the sum of $6,460 payable to Sutton Livestock Company and the other for $100 payable to Dr. Thomas B. Sutton; that Dr. Sutton endorsed the one payable to himself for $100! and delivered both checks to W. E. Grubbs, bookkeeper and office manager for Sutton Livestock Company who deposited them to the account of Sutton Livestock Company in the Bank of Worth County on October 13, • 1961; that both checks when presented for payment to the bank on which they were drawn were dishonored and returned to the Bank of Worth County with an entry of “insufficient funds” endorsed on each and both were charged back to the account of Sutton Livestock Company and were never thereafter paid by the accused. The evidence also shows without dispute that the cattle purchased by the accused were delivered by the seller (Sutton Livestock Company) to a truck driver the accused had sent from Kentucky for them on the day they were purchased and paid for with the two checks he had sent to Dr. Thomas B. Sutton. Hence, there is no merit in the contention that this was not a cash sale of cattle to the accused within the meaning of
Code Ann.
§ 5-9914. See in this connection,
Savannah Cotton Press Assoc. v. MacIntyre,
4. There is also no merit in the contention that venue of the offense for which the accused' was indicted and convicted was not shown to be in Worth County, Georgia. Respecting this
*579
issue, the evidence conclusively shows that the accused on October 9, 1961, by telephone from his office in Summer Shade, Kentucky, contacted Dr. Thomas B. Sutton at his office in Sylvester, Worth County, Georgia, and requested him, as an agent of Sutton Livestock Company, to purchase for him from such livestock company 60 head of feeder cattle. Dr. Sutton pursuantly contacted Sutton Livestock Company and arranged for the accused to get from it the cattle he desired at and for the price of $6,545.80. The accused sent a truck to Worth County to pick up the cattle so purchased and sent with the truck driver two checks signed by himself totaling $6,560 which Dr. Sutton used for the purpose of paying Sutton Livestock Company for the cattle. After these checks were delivered to Sutton Livestock Company by Dr. Sutton, the cattle were loaded on a truck the accused sent for them at Sutton Livestock Company’s stockyard in Worth County, Georgia, and were transported, pursuant to instructions from the accused, by his truck driver to Burkesville, Kentucky, where they were sold and delivered to Lloyd Bean by the accused, the consideration therefor being the extinguishment of a debt which the accused owed Bean. In these circumstances, we hold that venue of the offense was properly laid and shown by the evidence to be in Worth County, Georgia, and our holding is amply supported by the rulings of this court and the Court of Appeals in
Keys v. State,
5. Since the indictment alleges that the accused did make way with
and
dispose of the cattle in Worth County, he . contends that it was incumbent on the State to prove that he not only made way with them in Worth County but that he also disposed of them in Worth County. This contention is not meritorious. When, as here, a defendant is charged with the violation of a penal statute containing disjunctively two ways a crime may be committed, proof of any one of which is sufficient to constitute the crime, the indictment, in order to be good as against a special demurrer, must charge such ways conjunctively if it charges more than one of them.
*580
Cody v. State,
6. It was not error for the court to refuse to give the following charge to the jury: “I charge you . . . that if you find in this case that the defendant did make way with and dispose of the cattle he is alleged to have bought from Sutton Livestock Company in any other place other than Worth County, Georgia, before the defendant did pay therefor, credit not having been expressly extended by Sutton Livestock Company for the said cattle, then it would be your duty under the law of Georgia to return a verdict of not guilty.” A request to charge must be legal, apt and precisely adjusted to some principle involved in the case, and be authorized by the evidence.
Lewis v. State,
7. For the reasons stated in the preceding divisions, the judgments excepted to are not erroneous.
Judgments affirmed.
