2020 Georgia Code
Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses
Chapter 9 - Forgery and Fraudulent Practices
Article 4 - Fraud and Related Offenses
§ 16-9-58. Failing to Pay for Natural Products or Chattels
Any person, either on his or her own account or for others, who with fraudulent intent shall buy cotton, corn, rice, crude turpentine, spirits of turpentine, rosin, pitch, tar, timber, pulpwood, Christmas trees, pine needles, horticultural crops, poultry and poultry products, cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, ratites, horses, mules, pecans, peaches, apples, watermelons, cantaloupes, or other products or chattels and fail or refuse to pay therefor within 20 days following receipt of such products or chattels or by such other payment due date explicitly stated in a written contract agreed to by the buyer and seller, whichever is later, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; except that if the value of the products or chattels exceeded $500.00 such person shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned for not less than one year nor more than five years.
(Ga. L. 1884-5, pp. 45, 52; Code 1933 § 5-9914 enacted by Code 1981, §16-9-58, enacted by Ga. L. 1983, p. 485, § 2; Ga. L. 1995, p. 244, § 11; Ga. L. 2003, p. 369, § 1.)
Editor's notes.- The provisions of this Code section were previously enacted in substantially similar form by Ga. L. 1884-5, pp. 45 and 52. However, those provisions were not enacted as part of the original Code by the Code enactment Act (Ga. L. 1981, Ex. Sess., p. 8).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Construction.
- Plain language of O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58 criminalizes acting with fraudulent intent to buy the enumerated items and failing or refusing to pay for those items within a certain time, and the crime is not complete until the failure or refusal to pay occurs. Babbitt v. State, 314 Ga. App. 115, 723 S.E.2d 10 (2012).
Prosecution under former provision, repealed in 1982, properly dismissed.
- Enactment of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated in 1982 repealed the statute governing the offense of failing to pay for agriculture products; thus, in the absence of a saving provision, the prosecution for such an offense which had not reached final judgment was properly dismissed. State v. Fordham, 172 Ga. App. 853, 324 S.E.2d 796 (1984).
Parties convicted under former provisions pardoned.
- Parties convicted of failure to pay for agricultural products, in violation of former Code 1933, § 5-9914, were pardoned when the state legislature acted to repeal the statute without an express saving provision applicable to such prior misconduct, notwithstanding the fact that the legislature at the next session reenacted verbatim § 5-9914 as O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58. Davis v. State, 172 Ga. App. 893, 325 S.E.2d 926 (1984).
Venue.
- Trial court did not err in denying the defendant's motion to dismiss an indictment charging the defendant with arranging to buy cattle and failing or refusing to pay the seller in violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58 on the ground that venue did not lie in Laurens County because there was some evidence that the place of payment was at the seller's location in Laurens County and that the defendant wrongfully failed or refused to pay the seller in Laurens County for the cattle; even if the defendant's fraudulent intent arose in Kansas sometime after the cattle were shipped, the crime was not consummated until the defendant failed or refused to pay. Babbitt v. State, 314 Ga. App. 115, 723 S.E.2d 10 (2012).
Trial court did not err in denying the defendant's motion to dismiss an indictment charging the defendant with arranging to buy cattle and failing or refusing to pay the seller in violation of O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58 because the stipulated facts did not include that the transaction at issue included an explicit due date under the terms of a written contract; O.C.G.A. § 16-9-58 does not specify that it pertains only to "cash sales," nor does it turn on when title passes to the buyer because the statute was specifically revised to extend its application to "all sales," and payment must be made within 20 days following receipt of such products or chattels or by such other payment due date explicitly stated in a written contract, whichever is later. Babbitt v. State, 314 Ga. App. 115, 723 S.E.2d 10 (2012).
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
No crime between November 1, 1982 and July 1, 1983.
- Failure to pay for natural products or chattels was not a crime in Georgia between November 1, 1982 and July 1, 1983. 1983 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U83-75.
