109 Ga. 127 | Ga. | 1899
The statute for the violation of which the plaintiff in error was charged declares that any person using any deceitful means or artful practices, other than those which are expressly mentioned in the code, by which an individual or the public is defrauded and cheated, shall be punished as for a misdemeanor. It is a sound proposition of law, that false representations, to bo the basis of a prosecution for cheating and swindling, must relate either to the past or to the present. Miller v. State, 99 Ga. 207. It therefore follows, that any promise or statement as to what may occur in the future, however false, will not serve as a basis for such a prosecution, because a promise is not a pretense. Ryan v. State, 45 Ga. 128. But it by no means follows that a prosecution may not be maintained, when in connection with a promise a false representation has been made. On this subject Mr. Bishop, in his work on Criminal Law (vol.
It has been several times ruled that the false pretense of having title to property, or of its being unencumbered by mortgage, made by one offering it for sale, is within the statute. 1 Mo. 248; 11 Allen, 233; 11 Cox C. C. 270. See also 65 Iowa, 452. And this is equivalent to ruling that a representation as to ownership of property, when false, is a representation of a fact and not of opinion, and therefore sufficient to support a prosecution.
Judgment affirmed.