## Facts

- Jim Papas possessed a winning ticket in the “Original Nacional Company” lottery, purportedly entitling the holder to $1,250.
- Antonio Caridis allegedly took and carried away Papas’s winning lottery ticket on or about July 29, 1914.
- On July 30, 1914, Caridis presented the ticket to the lottery company and received the $1,250 prize.
- The prosecution filed an information charging Caridis with grand larceny, alleging the stolen ticket was worth $1,250 because it represented the right to receive that amount.
- The trial court sustained a demurrer to the information and dismissed it on the ground that the ticket had no legitimate value.
- The People appealed from the dismissal order.

## Issues

1. Whether a winning ticket in an illegal lottery, evidencing only a claim to payment arising from unlawful gambling, constitutes property of legally recognized value sufficient to support grand larceny.
2. Whether an information charging grand larceny based on the alleged $1,250 representative value of such a ticket states facts constituting a public offense.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the order sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the information.
- A winning ticket from an illegal lottery did not constitute property of legitimate value for purposes of charging grand larceny based on its alleged $1,250 representative value.
- At most, the ticket could have minimal intrinsic value as paper, which would not meet the statutory threshold for grand larceny.

## Legal Principles

- Grand larceny requires that the alleged stolen property have value meeting the statutory threshold; value may be intrinsic or representative only if the represented right is legally recognized.
- A document’s representative value depends on the enforceability of the right it evidences; a void obligation arising from illegal gambling is not legally enforceable and is not treated as valuable property for grading larceny.
- When the alleged value of stolen property rests solely on an illegal transaction, a pleading that relies on that value fails to state grand larceny.

## Conclusion

Because the ticket’s asserted $1,250 value derived from an illegal lottery obligation that the law would not recognize or enforce, the information did not allege theft of property having the value required for grand larceny, and dismissal on demurrer was properly affirmed.


People v. Caridis, 154 P. 1061 (Cal. Ct. App. 1915)