US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

A count in an indictment which charges that the accused,

"being then and there an assistant, clerk, or employee in or connected with the business or operations of the United States Post Office in the City of Mobile, in the State of Alabama, did embezzle the sum of sixteen hundred and fifty-two and 59/100 dollars, money of the United States, of the value of sixteen hundred and fifty-two and 59/100 dollars, the said money being the personal property of the United States,"

is defective in that it does not further allege that such sum came into his possession in that capacity.

The count having been demurred to and the demurrer having been overruled, the objection to it is not covered by Rev.Stat. § 1025, and is not cured by verdict.

Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been entrusted or into whose hands it has lawfully come, and it differs from larceny in the fact that the original taking of the property was lawful, or with the consent of the owner, while in larceny the felonious intent must have existed at the time of the taking.

Plaintiff in error, late Assistant Postmaster of the City of Mobile, was indicted and convicted of embezzling certain moneys of the United States to the amount of $1,652.59.

There were four counts in the indictment, to one of which a demurrer was sustained and upon two others defendant was acquitted. The fourth count, upon which he was convicted, charged that

"the said George S. Moore, being then and there an assistant, clerk, or employee in or connected with the business

Page 160 U. S. 269

or operations of the United States Post Office in the City of Mobile, in the State of Alabama, did embezzle the sum of sixteen hundred and fifty-two and 59/100 dollars ($1,652.59), money of the United States, of the value of sixteen hundred and fifty-two and 59/100 dollars ($1,652.59), the said money being the personal property of the United States."

Moore, having been sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor, sued out this writ of error.