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People v Caridis
Ct of App. California, 1915
Author:- Sam Biers
Facts: Def took the winning lottery ticket belonging Jim Papas in SF California and remitted it for payment of $1250. Original Nacional Company paid the Df the money in exchange for the ticket.
Issue: Whether unlawful property, belonging to another, when taken against the will of another constitutes larceny?
Holding: No
Procedure: Trial ct granted demurrer for DF, Affirmed.
Rule: If the thing stolen consists of a written instrument from an enterprise which is denounced by law and which apparently existed and was conducted in defiance of law, that instrument has no relative value.
Ct. Rationale: It is well settle principle that an obligation which exists in defiance of a law which denounces it has, in the eyes of the law, neither validity nor value. Considered a mere piece of paper the lottery ticket in question would have sufficed to make the wrongful taking of it petit larceny.
PL A: The unlawful taking of the property of another with the intent to deprive.
Df A: The lottery ticket was the product of an illegal enterprise and has no value.