63 N.H. 79 | N.H. | 1884
The first count in the indictment charges embezzlement on the 12th day of May, 1868. This is among the crimes for which the statute requires indictments to be found within six years after the commission of the offence. G. L., c. 260, s. 8. The only exception in the statute is that of the defendant's want of usual and public residence within the state during the time the statute would otherwise run, and the state concedes that the case is not within this exception. Upon the face of the indictment, the prosecution upon the first count is barred by the statute of limitations. State v. Robinson,
The state claims that the fraudulent concealment of his crime by the defendant interrupted the bar of the statute, and left the state at liberty to prosecute the offence at any time within six years after the offence became known. In civil procedure the fraudulent concealment of the cause of action takes the case out of the operation of the statute, and prevents the erection of the bar of limitation until the cause of action is known. Way v. Cutting,
The second and third counts allege the fraudulent possession and fraudulent concealment of the money, on the 1st day of April 1884, embezzled by the defendant in 1868. These are not averments of an embezzlement or conversion of the money to the defendant's use in 1884. The crime may be continuous, or repeated from day to day, so long as the offender retains and conceals the embezzled money, as larceny may continue so long as the thief retains the *81
stolen goods. 1 Hale P. C. 507; 1 Hawk. P. C., c. 53, s. 52; 2 East P. C. 771; State v. Somerville,
Indictment quashed.
CARPENTER, J., did not sit: the others concurred.