N. P. WALLS, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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N. P. Walls was convicted of obtaining a $5,000 check by false pretenses based on misrepresentations about mortgage encumbrances on real property. The Florida Supreme Court reversed the conviction, holding that the information was fatally defective because the alleged false pretense was contradicted by public records of which the alleged victims had constructive notice.
The motion to quash the information should have been granted because the false pretense alleged—misrepresenting the extent of mortgage encumbrances—was contradicted by public records in the clerk's office of which the alleged victims had constructive notice and were in law advised of the contents.
“We think the motion to quash the information should have been granted.”
The court's holding that the trial court erred in denying the motion to quash, establishing that the information was fatally defective.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceWalls was charged with obtaining a $5,000 check by falsely representing that a Bungalow lot in Ocean Beach Addition No. 3 was encumbered by only one $…
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Per Curiam.
Plaintiff in Error, N. P. Walls, was tried and convicted in the Criminal Court of Records of Dade County on an information charging him with having obtained a certain check of the value of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) by false pretenses. A motion to quash the information, a motion in arrest of judgment and a motion for new trial were all reasonably made and denied. Walls was sentenced to the State penitentiary at hard labor for a period of three years and writ of error was taken to the judgment.
We think the motion to quash the information should have been granted. The false pretense charged against Walls consisted in an alleged representation by him to the effect that “Búngalo Lot 15, Block 41, Ocean Beach Addition No. 3, according to the plat thereof recorded in plat book No. 2 at page No. 81 of the public records of Dade County, Florida,” was incumbered by only one mortgage for the sum of Six Thousand Six Hundred Sixty-seven Dollars ($6,667.00) when in fact said lot was incumbered by another and different mortgage in the sum of Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) securing three notes each in the sum of Eight Thousand Three Hundred Thirty-three Dollars ($8,333.00).
For this reason the judgment below must be and is hereby reversed.
Reversed.
Terrell, C. J., and Brown, J., concur. Whitfield, P. J., and Buford, J., concur in the opinion and judgment.
Strum, J., absent on account of illness.
Buford, J.
I think the information is further fatally defective because it affirmatively shows that the. pretense alleged to have been relied upon was contradicted by the public records in the office of the clerk of the Circuit Court of Dade County, of which records the persons alleged to have been deceived had constructive notice and the contents of which they were in law advised.