JOSEPHINE TOWNSEND, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, DEFENDANT IN ERROR

Fla. | 1912-01-01
Whitfield, C. J., and Taylor, Shackleford and Cockrell, J. J., concur.
63 Fla. 46 Florida Supreme Court (1912) Caution
Cited by 18 cases

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Synopsis

Josephine Townsend was convicted of embezzlement based on an information charging her with secreting a gold certificate entrusted to her for examination. The Florida Supreme Court reversed her conviction, finding that the information improperly charged her under two distinct statutory sections dealing with different classes of bailees and that the evidence did not support an embezzlement conviction under either statute.


Holding

The third count of the information should have been quashed because it improperly combined two distinct statutory sections governing different classes of bailees, and the evidence did not demonstrate either an entrusting within the meaning of section 3308 for bailees for hire or a secreting within the meaning of section 3309 for other bailees.


Key Quotes

“This 3rd count seems to be based partly on section 3308 of the General Statutes in that it charges the gold certificate to have been entrusted to the defendant by Martin Mayo, and partly on section 3309 Id. in that it charges that she secreted the property entrusted to her. These two sections it seems to us are intended to embrace different kinds of bailees.”

Establishes the court's analysis that the information improperly merged two distinct statutory provisions governing different classes of bailees.

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Facts & Procedural History

Josephine Townsend was entrusted by Martin Mayo with a $50 gold certificate for the purpose of examination. On December 25, 1910, in Walton County, sh…

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Opinion of the Court
Hocker J.

Hocker J.

— Josephine Townsend was tried, convicted and sentenced in the Criminal Court of Record of Walton County on the third count of an information which is as follows:

“And the said A. G. Campbell, County Solicitor for the County of Walton, prosecuting for the State of Florida in said county, under oath further information makes that one Josephine Townsend alias Josephine Townsell, late of the County of Walton in the State aforesaid, on the 25th day of December in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ten at and in the County of Walton aforesaid: did then and there having been en: trusted with one gold certificate lawful currency of the United States of America of the denomination of Fifty dollars, and of the value of fifty dollars, by one Martin Mayo, the owner of said gold certificate, she the said Josephine Townsend, alias Josephine Townsell then and there being entrusted with the gold certificate for the purpose of examination, being so entrusted by said Martin Mayo the owner thereof, did then and there unlawfully secrete the same with intent then and there to unlawfully embezzle the same and fraudulently convert the same to her own use the said property having been then and there entrusted and delivered to her as afore said and being the subject of larceny, against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Florida.”

A motion was made to quash each count of the information for that neither stated any offense against the laws of Florida, and the second and third counts were so drawn as to embarrass the defendant in her defense. This motion was denied, and the ruling assigned as error. This 3rd count seems to be based partly on section 3308 of the General Statutes in that it charges the gold certificate to have been entrusted to the defendant by Martin Mayo, and partly on section 3309 Id. in that it charges that she secreted the property entrusted to her. These two sections it seems to us are intended to embrace different kinds of bailees. The first embrances, factors, commission merchants, warehouse keepers, war-fingers, wagoners, stage drivers, or other common carrier on land or water, or any other person with whom any property which may be the subject of larceny is entrusted or deposited by another. The doctrine of noscitur a sociis or ejusdem generis applies to the last clause and must be understood as referring to bailees for hire, not embraced in the enumeration of such bailees first set forth. McGriff, Admr., v. Porter, 5 Fla. 373, text 378; Broom’s Legal Maxims (8th. ed.) 452. The other section (3309) evidently refers to a different class of bailees not for hire.

We think the motion to quash this count of the information should have been granted, and we , are the more inclined to sustain this assignment because the evidence does not show any entrusting of the money to the defendant within the meaning of section 3308 which deals with embezzlement by bailees for hire, nor does it clearly show a secreting within the meaning of section 3309.

The judgment below is reversed.

Whitfield, C. J., and Taylor, Shackleford and Cockrell, J. J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Ex Parte: Ernest Amos, 93 Fla. 5 (Fla. 1927)
    …is,” which means that general and specific words which are capable of an analogous meaning being associated together take color from each other so that the general words are restricted to a sense analogous to the less general. See Townsend v. State, 63 Fla. 46, 57 South. Rep. 611; Ex Parte Neet, 157 Mo. 527, 57 S. W. Rep. 1025; 70 Am. St. Rep. 638; Ex Parte Lingenfelter, 64 Tex. Crim. Rep. 30, 142, S. W. Rep. 555, Ann. Cas. 1914C 765; Misch v. Russell, 136 Ill. 22, 26 N. E. Rep. 528, 12 L. R. A. 125; Stat…
  • …s that general and specific words which are capable of an analogous meaning being associated together take color from each other, so that the general words are restricted to a sense analogous to the less general.’ See also Townsend v. State, 1912, [63 Fla. 46], 57 So. 611, approving the doctrine of ‘noscitur a sociis or ejusdem generis.’ “It can be readily seen that the word ‘otherwise’, in the hernia statute, refers to hernias that are similar to those specified, to the inguinal or femoral hernias. ‘Pa…
  • …scitur a sociis which simply means that general and specific words capable of analogous meaning when associated together take color from each other so that the general words are restricted to a sense analogous to the less general. Townsend v. State, 63 Fla. 46, 57 So. 611. We are therefore led to the conclusion that by the 1953 amendment for the benefit of farmers generally the Legislature did not intend to authorize the hauling of loads in trucks over the public highways. The farmer could get the benefi…

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